Mobile phones: Start-up to offer 4G nationwide
Mobile phones 4G service would be sold wholesale to retailers of mobile phones, wireless providers, and others, LightSquared says.
Sanjiv Ahuja, chairman and CEO of LightSquared, delivers his keynote address at the International CTIA wireless industry conference in Orlando, Fla., March 23, 2011. Best Buy, a retailer of mobile phones, will sell wireless services using a network being built by LightSquared, said the chief executive from the Harbinger Capital-backed telecommunications start-up.
Scott Audette/Reuters
By CNBC.com
Mobile phone dead zones could be a thing of the past, if a new company called LightSquared lives up to its claims.
In the second half of this year, the company plans to offer wholesale nationwide 4G networks to wireless phone service providers, game makers and many others, its CEO, Sanjiv Ahuja, told CNBC Wednesday.
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Among its clients so far, LightSquared has entered into an agreement with Best Buy to be the network provider for the electronics retailer's mobile phones, which will available in the first quarter of 2012.
“We are here to provide enough capacity to the wireless guys so that they can take it and in turn provide it to their customers,” said Ahuja. “We can also do this for the wire-line guys.”
Ahuja said LightSquared’s service can be purchased by big companies, such as Best Buy, AT&T or Apple — as well as by two-person gaming shops.