Ligado Can Pause $100 Million Payment to Inmarsat, Judge Rules
A bankruptcy judge said there was a ‘colorable argument’ Inmarsat breached its contract by asking the FCC to deny a Ligado spectrum deal.
WASHINGTON, March 31, 2026 – Ligado can hold off on a $100 million payment to Inmarsat, a U.S. bankruptcy court held Monday.
Using funds from AST SpaceMobile, which is looking to provide direct-to-cell satellite service on Ligadio’s L-band spectrum, Ligado agreed to pay Inmarsat a total of $535 million in exchange for Inmarsat’s public support of the companies’ plan.
Ligado had already paid $420 million of that when AST submitted to the Federal Communications Commission a petition to deny the AST-Ligado application, alleging Ligado had not done required coordination work with Inmarsat, which also uses the spectrum at issue.
