@ CTIA: LightSquared continues to attract partners, funding needs to hit $14B by end of decade

ORLANDO, Fla. – LightSquared continued its promotional tour this morning with company chairman and CEO Sanjiv Ahuja taking the stage during the Day 2 keynote extolling the benefits of LightSquared’s planned wholesale-only, satellite/terrestrial-based LTE network.
Ahuja cited other companies that came into established industries with new business models that fundamentally changed how that industry operated. Those examples included Dell Inc. it the personal computing space and Netflix Inc. in the digital content delivery space.
Ahuja repeatedly cited President Barak Obama’s push for nationwide broadband access covering 98% of the country’s population in explaining the importance of LightSquared’s satellite/terrestrial network offering. LightSquared has said it plans to cover more than 100 million potential customers with its terrestrial LTE service by the end of 2012, 145 million by the end of 2013 and more than 260 million pops by the end of 2015.
In connection with its terrestrial coverage, LightSquared has recently launched a satellite that Ahuja said was the most powerful deployed for offering telecommunication services that will provide 100% coverage of the contiguous United States. Those companies looking to purchase wholesale services from LightSquared can choose between any of the network offerings.
As for new news, Ahuja announced that LightSquared had signed a deal with Best Buy for the retail giant’s Best Buy Connect. The branded mobile broadband service is sold through Best Buy with LightSquared stating plans to begin trialing the service in early 2012.
Best Buy had previously announced a deal with Clearwire Corp. to offer mobile broadband services using the carrier’s WiMAX network.
The Best Buy deal followed up on an announcement earlier this week that LightSquared had signed an agreement with Leap Wireless International Inc. to provide roaming services for the carrier’s Cricket customers when they roam outside of Leap’s planned LTE network build. The carrier said it expects to begin rolling out LTE services later this year.
LightSquared is still looking to fill it coffers to be able to fund its network investment plans, which Ahuja said could total $14 billion over the next eight years.
In addition, rumors continue to swirl that LightSquared is looking to ditch its current infrastructure agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks and perhaps align itself with partners currently supplying network equipment to large, domestic operators.