Best Buy to offer 4G mobile broadband

Best Buy plans to offer a 4G high-speed mobile broadband service based on LightSquared’s LTE service.

Sanjiv Ahuja, LightSquared chief executive, announced the new partnership on March 23 during a keynote address at the CTIA wireless industry conference in Orlando, Florida, but gave few details. “Working together we are targeting a trial in the first quarter of 2012, and over the next few weeks, we will provide a lot more details on this,” Ahuja said. Best Buy, which launched its Best Buy Connect service last July, currently offers customers a 3G mobile broadband data service using Sprint’s network. However the mobile data market in the US is moving quickly to 4G networks which offer download speeds at least 10 times as fast as 3G services. The deal with Best Buy represents a significant coup for LightSquared, which is controlled by Philip Falcone’s Harbinger Group and is building a nationwide LTE network that it plans to offer on a wholesale basis.