Sprint May End Deal With LightSquared in Mid-March

Not that it will come as a shock, but Sprint Nextel Corp. is ready to end a network-sharing agreement with LightSquared, according to Bloomberg. 

Under terms of the deal that would have had Sprint hosting the LightSquared network, LightSquared was required to get Federal Communications Commission approval to use its spectrum.


LightSquared hasn't been able to do so. Some might say LightSquared still has a chance to move ahead. But aside from experts hired by LightSquared, its executives or others with a business relationship with LightSquared, there doesn't seem to be much thinking that will happen. 


In a larger sense, the difficulties illustrate a larger issue, namely that venture capitalists and technologists sometimes vastly underestimate the highly-political aspects of the communications business. 


That accounts for the much-higher profile the technology industry now pays to wooing decision-makers and other influencers in Washington, D.C., for example.