Billionaire Philip Falcone's LightSquared Inc. reached a 15-year deal with Sprint Nextel Corp. to share network expansion costs and equipment, and to provide high-speed wireless service to the phone company.
Falcone told Harbinger Capital Partners hedge fund investors about the accord in a letter Friday. The companies were discussing a deal valued at as much as $20 billion, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month.
"LightSquared and Sprint will jointly develop, deploy and operate LightSquared's 4G LTE network," according to the letter. "Sprint will become a significant customer of LightSquared's 4G LTE network."
The deal is an important step forward for Falcone, whose effort to challenge Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. was met with skepticism after plans for LightSquared emerged in government filings about 15 months ago. Falcone is gambling more than 60 percent of his hedge fund on LightSquared.
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