LightSquared Withholds $56.3 Million Payment

Philip Falcone’s LightSquared Inc. , the U.S. company struggling to gain approval for a wireless service, failed to pay British satellite operator Inmarsat Plc (ISAT) $56.3 million under a spectrum-cooperation accord, Bloomberg reports.
Inmarsat issued a notice of default under the companies’ cooperation agreement, giving LightSquared 60 days to remedy the payment, the London-based satellite operator said in a statement today. In a separate statement, LightSquared said that Inmarsat must fulfil certain obligations tied to the deployment of its terrestrial and satellite network and that “several matters” need to be resolved. It didn’t give more details.

LightSquared, based in Reston, Virginia, had been making a series of scheduled payments to the British company in line with contractual milestones, Inmarsat said. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said last week that it would block LightSquared after finding that the wireless venture would disrupt navigation gear….

Read all about it at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-20/falcone-s-lightsquared-withholds-56-3-million-payment-to-u-k-s-inmarsat.html