Harbinger Capital today offered to front Skyterra $500 million to launch two satellites, says GigaOm’s Stacey Higginbotham. The private equity firm is also planning to push for a deal to acquire Inmarsat, according to Higginbotham. Harbinger already owns 28.8 percent of Inmarsat’s stock.
Harbinger is apparently confident that the FCC will look favorably on its attempt to provide a merged 4G satellite and terrestrial network. (see: Dailywireless Feb, 2008: Satphones: Merger Ahead?).
MSV and Inmarsat both own complimentary spectrum and satellites that work in the L band. According to the Skyterra press release, regulatory approvals for any deal would take between a year to 18 months to complete, which means the $500 million in cash is needed to keep the company — and its birds — afloat.
Harbinger could be eyeing other deals as well. The firm has a large ownership stake in TerreStar, which owns spectrum in the same band (1.4 GH) owned by EchoStar and Echostar also owns nationwide spectrum at 700 MHz.
SkyTerra and Inmarsat have reached a major pact to offer L-band hybrid mobile satellite services in North America, reports RCR News.
“We have worked long and hard with Inmarsat to develop this agreement, which sets operational parameters in the L-band for existing satellite operations and lays the groundwork for future cooperation to address consumers’ demand for next generation technology and services,” said Alexander Good, CEO of SkyTerra and vice chairman of MSV.
Other MSS licensees such as Globalstar, ICO and TerreStar Networks may need to offer similar competitive offerings, say analysts. They expect U.S. officials to sign off on the SkyTerra-MSV-Inmarsat agreement.
A variety of satellite phone providers are due to launch new platforms soon that will feature terrestrial repeaters for service that more closely approximates cellular, providing low-cost service with inexpensive handsets.
In the United States, six satellite phone providers may soon be competing:
- The 2 GHz Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) Band:
- The “L Band” at 1.6 GHz:
- Low Earth Orbit Satellite Phones:
ICO launched its huge spotbeam platform, ICO G1 this March. TerreStar Networks shares the 2.2 GHz (MSS) band with ICO and expects its hybrid mobile satellite, TerreStar-1, will launch during the December 2008 through February 2009 launch window. Terrestar recently announced $300 million in investor commitments.
Both ICO and TerreStar have 20 MHz each in the MSS band (2.0/2.1 GHz). They’ll deliver spotbeam satphone services from geosynchronous space, but will suppliment the space connection with terrestrial repeaters which allow small, inexpensive handsets to be used.
Satphone providers Inmarsat and MSV are also launching satphone services from GEO orbit in the “L” band. The “L” band is centered around 1.6 GHz.
Inmarsat is set to launch its final I-4, F3 on August 14 and position it over the Pacific. That makes it handy for tiny BGAN terminals on the West Coast, that can plug into regular landline phones or laptops for 400Kbps service.
MSV-1 and MSV-2 are also sharing the 1.6ghz “L” band over the United States and Canada. They will provide a spotbeam satphone platform in GEO space, planned for 2010. MSV, like Terrestar and ICO in the 2GHz MSS band, will use terrestrial repeaters.
Meanwhile, in the Low Earth Orbit, Iridium and GlobalStar are battling it out for traditional LEO satphone service.
Some observers believe six satphone competitors would be untenable.
Instead of six providers, they envision three or four. Economics and logistics, they say, will force “MSS band” providers ICO and Terrestar to merge. Likewise “L Band” providers Inmarsat and MSV could merge and LEO providers Iridium and GlobalStar could merge.
Related space and satellite news on DailyWireless includes; MSS: Battle Space, ICO Deploys 40 Foot Antenna, ICO G-1 In Space, Sprint’s Walkie Talkie: 40 Cities, ICO Wants Its Mobile TV – via DVB-SH, Dish Network Testing DVB-SH, HughesNet’s Spaceway 3 Now Available, AMC-14: Killed by Lawyers?, Satellite Radio Merger Goes to FCC, Spot Beam Sats Multiply, Satphones: Merger Ahead?, Inmarsat + SkyTerra = Spectrum Sharing, AT&T Goes with FLO, What’s Dish Network Planning?, WiMAX TV from NextWave, Italy Testing DVB-SH Mobile TV, Mobile/Handheld TV: Killer App? and Mobile TV War at NAB 2007.
