8. COMMITMENTS

Contractual Obligations

The Company is obligated to make payments under purchase commitments. Payments for the commitments are summarized below (in thousands):

Years Ending December 31,
2012	$	84,649
2013		31,912
2014		1,416
2015		—
2016		—
Thereafter		—
Total purchase commitments	$	117,977

The Company has purchase commitments with Thales, Arianespace, Ericsson, Hughes and other vendors related to the procurement and deployment of the second-generation constellation.

On March 21, 2011, the Company entered into an agreement with Hughes which extended to July 31, 2011 the deadline for the Company to make certain scheduled payments previously due prior to July 31, 2011. The deferred payments incurred interest at the rate of 10% per annum. Neither the Company nor Hughes terminated the contract by July 31, 2011. In September 2011, the Company paid $5.0 million of these deferred payments and in October 2011, entered into an amended agreement with Hughes to extend to December 31, 2011 the deadline for the Company to make the remaining required payments. On December 30, 2011, The Company and Hughes entered into an amended agreement to extend to March 30, 2012 the deadline for the Company to make the remaining required payments, provided the Company makes two payments of $1.0 million each in January 2012. The Company made these payments. The deferred payments continue to incur interest at the rate of 10% per annum. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had recorded $22.9 million in accounts payable related to these required payments and had incurred and capitalized $73.0 million of costs related to this contract. The costs are recorded as an asset in property and equipment. If the Company is unable to modify successfully the contract payment terms, the contract may be terminated, and the Company may be required to record an impairment charge. If the contract is terminated for convenience, the Company must make a final payment of $20.0 million in either cash or Globalstar common stock at Globalstar’s election. If Globalstar elects to make payment in common stock, Hughes will have the option either to accept the common stock or instruct the Company to complete a block sale of the common stock and deliver the proceeds to Hughes.

On March 7, 2011, the Company entered into an agreement with Ericsson which extended to February 23, 2012 (or earlier if the Company obtains additional financing) the deadline for the Company to make scheduled milestone payments which were previously due during 2011. The deferred payments will incur interest at the rate of 6.5% per annum. On December 20, 2011, the Company entered into an agreement with Ericsson which extended the payment milestones under the contract. In March 2012, The Company entered into another agreement with Ericsson which deferred approximately $5.0 million in milestone payments due under the contract to June 28, 2012. The remaining milestones previously due under the contract in 2012 were deferred to 2013 and beyond. The deferred payments will incur interest at a rate of 6.5% per annum.

In April 2011, the Company and a potential vendor entered into a contingent agreement for services related to the second-generation satellite constellation. This agreement was amended in February 2012 to become effective if and when the Company obtains certain financing commitments prior to May 31, 2012. If the effective date does not occur on or before May 31, 2012, this agreement will terminate and all deposits will be refunded to the Company. If on or before May 31, 2012, the Company obtains a commitment to finance alternative or competing services other than those to be provided by the potential vendor, the vendor will retain the $6.0 million deposits made by the Company.

The Company issued separate purchase orders for additional phone equipment and accessories under the terms of executed commercial agreements with Qualcomm. Within the terms of the commercial agreements, the Company paid Qualcomm approximately 7.5% to 25% of the total order price as advances for inventory. As of December 31, 2011 and 2010, total advances to Qualcomm for inventory were $9.2 million. As of December 31, 2011 and 2010, the Company had outstanding commitment balances of $8.8 million for inventory held by Qualcomm. The Company and Qualcomm are interested in terminating the purchase orders and are negotiating to do so. The Company expects to negotiate the termination of this contract in 2012 and has not included these obligations in the table above.

Future Minimum Lease Obligations

The Company has noncancelable operating leases for facilities and equipment throughout the United States and around the world, including Louisiana, California, Florida, Texas, Canada, Ireland, France, Brazil, Panama, and Singapore. The leases expire on various dates through 2021. The following table presents the future minimum lease payments (in thousands) as of December 31, 2011, excluding possible lease payment reimbursement from the State of Louisiana pursuant to the Cooperative Endeavor Agreement the Company entered into with the Louisiana Department of Economic Development (See Note 17: Headquarters Relocation):

2012	$	1,657
2013		1,345
2014		761
2015		704
2016		655
Thereafter		1,686
Total minimum lease payments	$	6,808

Rent expense for 2011, 2010 and 2009 was approximately $2.2 million, $2.1 million, and $1.8 million, respectively.