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As LightSquared's troubles mount, rival 4G wholesaler Clearwire can hope to benefit, and just as the mobile satellite venture lured some of its clients (such as Best Buy) last year, so the Sprint venture is now getting its own back. It has signed a deal with Simplexity, a mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE) which was previously touted as a flagship partner for LightSquared.

Simplexity stressed that the new agreement with Clearwire does not mean it is distancing itself from LightSquared, but with doubts rising over whether the latter will be allowed to build its LTE network - because of possible interference with GPS systems - the MVNE will be looking for back-up options for its network of MVNO clients.

As an MVNE, Simplexity becomes a wholesale customer for Clearwire's network, which currently runs on Mobile WiMAX and is embarking on a migration program to TD-LTE and then LTE-Advanced. That may throw up various complications on the device front, despite Clearwire's development and testing alliance with China Mobile, but some of Simplexity's customers are industrial or enterprise providers which are more able to accommodate specialized devices.

The MVNE will sell and manage mobile broadband services for third parties, which can run them under their own brands, from later this year. It will also provide a platform of supporting functions to potential MVNOs, including sales and order acquisition, activation and provisioning, distribution and logistics, billing and subscriber lifecycle management, customer care and management analytics. This is a model which is increasingly popular in regions where MVNOs are proliferating and where many non-wireless companies wish to have a mobile offering, but need a quick, outsourced way to achieve this. For instance, Transatel supports over 50 MVNOs on the Orange network across Europe, including the newly launched China Telecom service in the UK.

Simplexity's president, Terry Hsu, told FierceWireless that it was not a conflict of interest to deal with both Clearwire and LightSquared. "It's not inconceivable for us to have multiple MVNO agreements and let our partners choose which services they want to leverage," he said. "We're happy to work with any network operators that are aggressively pursuing the wholesale business."

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