"The potential benefit of LightSquared to Sprint was the injection of capital and perhaps an improved negotiating position with Clearwire," said Tolaga Research analyst Phil Marshall.

In December, Sprint agreed to pay Clearwire as much as $350 million over two years for capacity on Clearwire's planned LTE network, which the company expects to have working by the middle of next year. The companies said they would identify areas with high mobile data demand where Clearwire's network could complement Sprint's.

The IDG News Service