Subject: [NEXTEL-1] WIRELESS WEEK on Blair Levin,Legg Mason Wood Walker-

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 15:04:15 -0500

Analyze That: Researcher Drawn To Complexity
BY MARK ROCKWELL
JANUARY 1, 2003
WIRELESS WEEK
© 2002, REED BUSINESS INFORMATION, A DIVISION OF REED ELSEVIER INC. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED.

Soft-spoken Blair Levin was once smack in the middle of formulating the FCC's
auction policy that eventually led to the now-infamous Nextwave Telecom case.
Levin was chief of staff for FCC Chairman Reed Hundt from 1993 to 1997,
including the era of outrageously high spectrum bidding that took its toll on
many bidders that ultimately couldn't make their payments.

In hindsight, "never has a single public policy issue made so many people look
so dumb," laments Levin, now managing director of Legg Mason Wood Walker's
telecom research team in Washington, D.C.

Levin says he doesn't consider the policy that allowed auction of the spectrum to
be a failure, but the part that allowed the company to essentially purchase the
resource on credit wasn't the best idea. In retrospect, the FCC could have
required a more substantial downpayment, say 50 percent of the total purchase
price, instead of the original percentage of around 30 percent, he says.

Levin seems to be drawn to difficult tasks. Before joining the FCC, he had been a
partner in a North Carolina law firm that represented new communications
companies and local governments on financing issues. He graduated summa
cum laude from Yale College and Yale Law School. After he left the FCC, he
began consulting on telecommunications.

Despite the rock-solid, high-brow resume, Levin speaks about complex topics
such as telecommunications with unassuming, but pinpoint accurate, skill. He
says the wireless market is extremely difficult to nail down and could become a
victim of its own success. "Wireless is a great industry. It's important for the
future of communications and the economy. It's also a hard one for investors,"
he adds. "The things that make it great, like lowering prices, increasing service
quality, also produce less gains for investors" because they flatten out the
margins for carriers.

"It's a very competitive industry. Companies must be innovative. Other
industries, like cable and wireline carriers, are innovative, but the value
proposition curve for wireless carriers is greater," he says. The innovation in
wireless is aimed at more efficiencies in services and infrastructure, which can
narrow profit margins even further, he says.

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=story&articleid=CA268289&spacedesc=Departments&stt=000

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