Nokia to develop mobile phone for us operator LightSquared

Nokia will develop handset products for LightSquared, a billionaire Fillipfalcohn, and LightSquared plans to provide wireless services to 260 million of US consumers over the next 5 years.

Nokia will provide data-centric branded products for LightSquared customers, LightSquared said in a statement today. LightSquared plans to sell its 4G network capacity to partners such as consumer electronics vendors and retailers, and its main competitor will be sprint Nextel, At&t and Verizon Wireless. It will build 4G networks in nine major U.S. cities by the end of next year, according to a company document released late last year.

For areas where wireless networks cannot be covered, LightSquared intends to make up for them using satellite signaling networks. LightSquared said today that Qualcomm, the world's largest handset chip maker, will develop a mobile phone chip that supports both satellite and cellular networks.

LightSquared's main supporter is the billionaire Falcone's Harbinger Capital, a hedge fund, which uses assets mainly acquired through the acquisition of SkyTerra Communications. LightSquared, in July, said it had already won 1.75 billion dollars in start-up sponsorship funds.

LightSquared plans to start testing its network in the cities of Baltimore, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Denver by early 2011, and has pledged to invest 7 billion of billions of dollars in its partnership with Nokia's Siemens network in the next 8 years. Nokia Siemens Network will be responsible for building and managing its network. The Nokia Siemens Network and the LightSquared board have approved cooperation deals, according to a statement released today by LightSquared.