LightSquared CEO walks thin line warning of 'spectrum crunch'

At the Open Mobile Summit, LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja tried to link his roiled-in-controversy would-be LTE wholesaler with all things positive: openness, technology democratization, innovation, economic development and more.

To paint LightSquared in the friendliest of terms, he even went so far as to color its network as a “dumb pipe,” out of step with industry worries concerning that phrase, but in line with efforts to make LightSquared as unthreatening as possible. According to Ahuja, the additional mobile broadband capacity LightSquared can provide – on a wholesale basis to all comers—can help relieve what he claimed what is not only a looming spectrum shortage, but a capacity shortfall as well.