Billionaire hedge fund manager Philip Falcone's LightSquared Inc on Tuesday named telecommunications veteran Marc Montagner as chief financial officer, replacing Michael Montemarano.

LightSquared is trying to position itself as a low-cost alternative to the big wireless operators like Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T.

Montagner, who has nearly 25 years of experience, had worked with France Telecom , Morgan Stanley , Sprint Nextel and Banc of America Securities .

He was responsible for mergers and acquisitions at Sprint and supervised the merger between Sprint and Nextel.

On Monday, Sprint Nextel extended a December 31 deadline for LightSquared, with which it may share infrastructure, to get a regulatory clearance for operating a planned telecommunications network.

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane)