That's a far cry from LTE, which Verizon Wireless says it has demonstrated at 8M bps to 12M bps to individual subscribers. But it should be faster than most existing satellite-based services. For example, a mobile data service still offered by SkyTerra, which Harbinger acquired earlier this year, runs at about 2.4K bps.

SkyTerra charges $69 per month and up for that legacy service, which is mostly used for voice and for vehicle tracking, Surface said. With the new network, LightSquared will charge carriers on a per-bit basis, and the carriers will set the price for consumers.

However, LightSquared is taking on formidable costs in building its network. Including construction, launch, insurance and the building of four ground stations for data backhaul from the satellite, SkyTerra-1 will cost about $1.1 billion before it's operational, Surface said.

One planned launch date for the new satellite was already scrapped. It was set to go up in mid-August, but contamination was discovered in some of the wheels that would be used to adjust parts of the craft. The problem, which also affected launches of some other satellites from builder Boeing, has since been corrected, Surface said. By conservative estimates, SkyTerra-1 should operate for at least 15 years, he said.

The launch is set to take place at 11:29 p.m. Sunday local time in Kazakhstan, which will be 12:29 p.m. Sunday afternoon on the U.S. East Coast, Surface said. International Launch Services, the company putting SkyTerra-1 in orbit, starting 30 minutes before the launch and ending 30 minutes after.