Dish Nabs $350M in LightSquared Debt
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Interesting. But the dslreports guy (Karl) is always putting out speculation that Charlie is just setting this up to sell. I think that Charlie sees the writing on the wall about Dish not be able to survive or grow being a tv-only provider and that Dish needs to be able to directly provide "Triple-play" bundles themselves, without any partners. The largest profit growth with the cabelco/telecos has been with internet.
Point --> Mochuf. I am skeptical that Dish's brand of LTE will somehow magically prevent interference with crappy GPS receivers. So, how could this spectrum be worth $350M?
That's a very good question TheKrell. I've read that the earlier spectrum Dish acquired wasn't near the GPS band, so there wouldn't be any interference. But the Lightsquared spectrum sure does cause interference. Will they just use it for something else entirely (streaming video), maybe just the satelitte spectrum and not the terrrestial portion that Lightsquared was working with? Charlie does own Hughesnet, so there are a lot of potential possiblities.
The Lightsquared spectrum is adjacent to the GPS band that is what causes the problem (local high powered transmission towers right next to the weak satellite band). Dish spectrum is not adjacent. But, I view this as Dish actually buying satellite spectrum on the cheap, scooping up debt for pennies on the dollar he could end up owning the spectrum which is good for satellite use (its current use).
Charlie takes his current S-Band and gets the FCC to allow it to be used for LTE, which does not interfere with GPS and uses the Lightsquared spectrum for satellite, essentially replacing his S-Band.
EXACTLY. I agree with you, I think that is exactly what he intends.
I do, however, remember reading that LightSquared's difficulty was two fold: GPS receivers not built to strict tolerances, and their particular intended implementation of LTE. It seems that there is in fact some way of "lessening" the conflict. I don't really understand it, but I doubt it would be a complete cureall, even if it involved more numerous, lower powered "towers."
And now Lightsquared is officially bankrupt. Falcone's LightSquared Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy - WSJ.com
So is Charlie holding the bag for $350M? He should have waited for bankruptcy and swooped in to acquire the assets.
I'm sure he knew what he was doing. We don't know if the debt was secured or of a special class. He's certainly got a seat at the table to discuss distribution of assets.
WSJ article is behind a paywall. But I'm sure other venues will pick up the story.
WSJ article is behind a paywall. But I'm sure other venues will pick up the story.
The bondholders are usually first in line for the remaining assets of a corporation (the stockholders are the ones that lose). The only real assets I can think of that LightSquared still has are:
1. Spectrum - still good for satellite use, not cell phone
2. Wholesale deals for things like tower space and service
3. Customers to be served by the network if it was built
Charlie might be able to get what he wants since he owns a bunch of the bonds now.
LightSquared spectrum was in between the two frequency spectrums used by GPS. The GPS receiver companies decided to use a cheap filter that filtered across both those GPS spectrums. Had they filtered for only the two GPS frequency spectrums, there would have been no issues.
There was no need for a filter because the adjacent bands were weak satellite bands. No need to worry about the interference. GPS now is just too wide spread. Also, there is doubt that the super sensitive GPS used for specialized applications would ever be as accurate with any amount of filtering with the powerful signals on adjacent bands.
