A newly reorganized LightSquared LLC announced on Wednesday that it was voluntarily withdrawing its lawsuit against the U.S. government, the latest in a series of moves to bring the firm closer to launching its mobile wireless network.
The former LightSquared Inc. filed a notice in federal court Wednesday requesting the dismissal of its lawsuit against the U.S. LightSquared spokeswoman Ashley Durmer commented that dismissing the suit is “another step forward” in the company’s long-delayed goal of rolling out its plan for low-cost mobile wireless service to hundreds of millions of Americans.
Durmer continued to note “the new company is committed to working with regulators to identify and implement solutions that enable this spectrum to be utilized.”
Of note, LightSquared emerged from bankruptcy on Monday after an extended 3½-year review process.
The dismissal of the lawsuit against the FCC follows the firm’s settlement on Tuesday with farm-equipment maker Deere & Co., which Harbinger and LightSquared also sued a couple of years ago, arguing that the receivers produced by Deere and other GPS equipment makers interfered with its wireless network.
Background on LightSquared lawsuit against government
Harbinger Capital Partners, the hedge fund that controlled LightSquared at the time, sued the federal government back in 2014. The lawsuit claimed that the government unlawfully permitted Global Positioning System businesses to use transmission spectrum owned by the firm, which led to Harbinger losing almost all of its $1.9 billion investment in the firm.
The lawsuit by the Phil Falcone hedge fund further claimed that accepting the assertion of the GPS companies that LightSquared’s network could interfere with GPS, the FCC violated an agreement it signed when it agreed to let Harbinger to buy the company.
The saga of LightSquared and Harbinger has been in the news for around for almost years now, and ValueWalk has reported on Falcone’s struggle with the FCC and various developments in the long-running bankruptcy case.
