The much-ballyhooed deal between Sprint Nextel and LightSquared ^[1], the upstart 4G network company, has finally come to fruition, the two companies announced ^[2] Thursday. Both companies settled on a 15-year agreement that includes spectrum hosting and network services, 4G wholesale, and 3G roaming.

According to the deal, LightSquared will pay approximately $9 billion to Sprint over the next 11 years for 3G and wholesale purchase credits, and in exchange, Sprint will set up and operate a national LTE network.

LightSquared’s goal, mandated by the FCC, is to deploy a nationwide 4G-LTE network that can cover 260 million Americans by 2015. With this deal in place, LightSquared expects to complete the project more than one year ahead of schedule. The company also believes this deal will lower its network capital and operating expenses by more than $13 billion over the next eight years.

The FCC has yet to deliver a ruling on the deal.

Read more from GigaOM ^[3].