Subject: Re: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel is getting desperate to get the "Scam Plan" passed

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 02 Aug 2003 05:36:02 -0400

Looking back at my archives on Nextel's history I found a statement made by Caron Carlson of Wireless Week back in 1999 that truly epitomizes Nextel's
shameful behaviour. What is ironic the paragraph is still applicable today. Desperate in 1999 and still desperate in 2003.

The paragraph below is an excerpt from an article on Nextel's attempt to circumvent the Judicial System.

I guess it's just another scenario of

"How Business Gets Done" ..................."We go around it"

<Snip>

"Desperate for spectrum to compete in the cellular/PCS league, Nextel has frequently pursued licenses outside established regulations, obtaining
waivers and asking the court to revise rules. In another pending spectrum acquisition attempt, Nextel bid in a privately conducted auction for certain
specialized mobile radio spectrum despite a consent decree signed with the Department of Justice in 1995 prohibiting it from holding much of that
spectrum."

Once again Nextel is pursuing licensed outside established regulations with the "Scam Plan".  Legal experts expect a drawn out court challenge if
Nextel's plan is accepted. So I'm sure Nextel will do as described above and ask the courts to change the rules.

==================================================================================
Nextel's 'FCC Agreement' Issued By Commission's Top Legal Counsel
BY CARON CARLSON
AUGUST 23, 1999

WASHINGTON--The agreement Nextel Communications Inc. touted earlier this month as an endorsement from the FCC and the Department of Justice of its
plan to acquire spectrum from bankrupt NextWave Telecom Inc. was actually an assurance from the FCC's top attorney to recommend the plan to agency
decision-makers.

In confidential negotiations with Nextel, FCC General Counsel Christopher Wright and other staff members confirmed that they would recommend waiving
eligibility restrictions on C-Block personal communications services licenses for Nextel. The assurances were given in the absence of any public
notice or comment process.

As spelled out by Nextel in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week, top FCC officials gave the company the green light on its
latest spectrum acquisition scheme before letting the public know it was contemplating any leeway in the "designated entity" ownership criteria for
C-Block licenses. For many wireless carriers that would be eager to pursue the same spectrum given a change in the well-established regulatory regime,
the agreement Nextel secured from the FCC smacks of backroom deal-making and favoritism.

A week before filing the details of the agreement with the SEC, Nextel publicly declared its plan had received the "endorsement" of the FCC and the
Department of Justice. The company's stock price rose more than 10 percent in one day following its announcement. It became clear with the SEC filing
that the endorsement was an agreement by the FCC general counsel to make a particular recommendation to the agency's decision-makers.

Nextel's strategy was to file a plan of reorganization in the NextWave bankruptcy case "with the support and assistance of the FCC" and the
[Department of Justice]. Nextel would pay the FCC about $1.59 billion, which the agency would add to the $499 million already paid toward the sum bid
by NextWave at auction.

Carriers question whether the FCC acted properly in granting its support to a plan that relies on a future modification of well-established rules.
NextWave said it was a "remarkable suggestion" that "two agencies of the United States government, working in concert, have secretly agreed to lend
their respective regulatory and police powers in support of [Nextel's] longstanding commercial efforts to obtain spectrum licenses held by NextWave."

NextWave sought and received a temporary injunction and restraining order prohibiting Nextel from discussing the NextWave reorganization and requiring
Nextel to appear at a hearing on a permanent injunction. The companies staved off the court appearance, however, with a deal last week that Nextel
would not tout its plan any further prior to NextWave's reorganization confirmation hearing Sept. 8. The FCC had tried to defer the NextWave
reorganization process by filing an application to stay previous bankruptcy and district court decisions in the matter, but the application was denied
last Tuesday.

Other parties in the industry remain concerned about the entire situation. The Washington, D.C., law firm Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP, representing
several undisclosed carriers and other wireless players, wrote to Wright demanding to know what ownership structure the commission was contemplating
for the NextWave spectrum, how other parties could comment on the Nextel agreement and offer alternative agreements, and what flexibility might be
contemplated in the designated entity rules. At least one major carrier and one trade association were considering writing to the FCC in support of
the letter.

Desperate for spectrum to compete in the cellular/PCS league, Nextel has frequently pursued licenses outside established regulations, obtaining
waivers and asking the court to revise rules. In another pending spectrum acquisition attempt, Nextel bid in a privately conducted auction for certain
specialized mobile radio spectrum despite a consent decree signed with the Department of Justice in 1995 prohibiting it from holding much of that
spectrum.

Given the deeper-pocketed and more influential PCS market, however, Nextel may find itself up against more formidable opposition in this spectrum
acquisition scheme.

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleId=CA3540