A long-mooted US network sharing deal between wholesale LTE operator prospect LightSquared and the country’s third-largest carrier Sprint appears close to completion. Reports this week suggest LightSquared is set to pay around US$2 billion a year to rent space on Sprint’s network to launch its own high-speed services, in a deal that could  last eight years. Reuters notes that the agreement would help Sprint pay for a US$5 billion network modernisation plan (dubbed Network Vision) which it announced late last year. CDMA and WiMAX operator Sprint is believed to be planning a long-term move to LTE technology, and a tieup with LTE operator LightSquared would certainly be in keeping with such a strategy. LightSquared would potentially use Sprint’s network equipment on 40,000 mobile towers along with its own wireless airwaves.

Although Sprint seems the most likely carrier partner for LightSquared, the startup was also this week linked to talks with AT&T, to buy capacity on its forthcoming LTE network (to be launched this summer). LightSquared inked a reciprocal roaming agreement recently with US operator Cellular South, and has been steadily adding more customers, including Leap Wireless. However, questions of how LightSquared’s terrestrial network will impact GPS signals continue to persist. The company has been testing its network near Las Vegas to see how it interferes with GPS. A report in today’s Wall Street Journal claims preliminary tests suggest the start-up’s network could knock out some GPS systems, an issue which has the potential to seriously harm the company’s future plans. The report says LightSquared officials acknowledge their network causes interference but say that they’ve developed technical fixes that could solve the problem. “LightSquared and GPS can and will be able to coexist peacefully,” said Jeff Carlisle, LightSquared’s executive vice president for regulatory affairs and public policy, yesterday. “We’re committed to identifying and resolving the issues through this process.” A final report on the matter is due to US regulator the FCC by June 15. LightSquared plans to launch commercial services early next year.