[Satellite News 07-27-08] A $500 million funding deal from Harbinger Capital Partners comes at a critical time for Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV), according to two of the company’s senior executives.
    The agreement, announced July 25, provides MSV with the funding to continue operations through the 2010 third quarter, including the launch of the two satellites that will form the space segment of MSV’s hybrid communications network.
    “This ensures that we will be able to deliver all of the critical programs that MSV has put together in order to participate in and deploy our enhanced mobile satellite service (MSS) segment,” Susan Miller, MSV’s senior vice president of satellite services, said. “These developments will put us on the map. Wireless and satellite services are the new wave of the future for the entire industry.”
    The agreement also opens the doors for SkyTerra to merge with Inmarsat, as Harbinger has been in talks to acquire the established MSS operator. Harbinger is Inmarsat’s largest shareholder with a 28 percent stake and also holds 48 percent of MSV. Harbinger also has invested in TerreStar Corp., another company planning a hybrid satellite-terrestrial mobile system.
    “It is very important to understand that combination of SkyTerra and Inmarsat PLC is only a possible combination,” said John Mattingly, senior vice president of international and special initiatives for MSV. “If we’re successful with our projects, it could result in an offer being made to Inmarsat that would result in the combination of the two companies.”
    Miller acknowledged that Inmarsat’s financial resources, combined with the more innovative projects at MSV and SkyTerra, could create a very powerful MSS company. “There’s a strategic fit between the two organizations,” she said. “The most important thing we think it brings together is a unification of the L-band spectrum that Inmarsat and MSV share today over North America. There’s already a significant cooperative agreement with Inmarsat in place, but this [deal] would relieve any of the compromise aspect of our cooperative agreement and give us the ability to efficiently deploy and create significant blocks of space segment.”

    The renewed interest on Harbinger’s behalf to acquire a larger chunk of North America’s broadband wireless spectrum could be riding on a wave of energy and attention the subject is receiving. On the same day of the Harbinger announcement,
    “What we’re doing fits extremely well into this environment,” said Mattingly. “The innovation we think will come out of this deal will include new applications for national defense, public safety and so forth. We’ve also been involved in working on the 700-megahertz spectrum D-block looking for integrated satellite terrestrial applications. What’s key here is that we have arrived at the time the market has arrived,” he said.
    “MSV is building towards what aspects the government is trying to define in broadband and to make certain mandates about the technologies and the communications protocol,” said Miller. “We will be the ones to deliver that broadband to serve markets in enhanced voice and data services.”