Ligado Networks – the new company which emerged from ill-fated open-access 4G start-up LightSquared in February 2016 – has revealed plans to begin developing 5G technology in the 1400MHz-1600MHz L-Band for mobile services in North America. Ligado seeks to deploy a satellite and terrestrial mobile network that will utilise a 40MHz block of spectrum to provide 5G solutions for critical industries.
Ericsson and Sequans have been selected to work on the technical developments, which will incorporate LTE-M and NB-IoT technologies and seek to use 3GPP standards-based technology to ‘support a new category of emerging devices’. The companies say that they aim to conduct several 5G demonstrations in the near future.
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, in February 2012 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declared that LightSquared’s use of non-traditional frequencies in the 1.4GHz and 1.6GHz bands interfered with GPS satellite navigation devices and aircraft flight safety equipment. Subsequent months saw the stricken company beset with myriad financial and legal problems, before being forced into bankruptcy in May 2012. LightSquared emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late-2015 and duly rebranded as Ligado Networks, with a view to targeting the IoT sector.