Subject: [NEXTEL-1] NextWave Says It Really Plans To Offer Service (No Really)

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 03:45:41 -0400

NextWave Says It Really Plans To Offer Service (No Really)

Contributed by Mike Masnick on Tuesday, June 8 2004 @ 1:41pm

Forgive us for being skeptical. NextWave has a long history of not doing
much, so we're not quite sure we believe it when they claim they're
really going to do anything at all. You may recall that NextWave spent
much more than they could possibly spend on spectrum from the FCC, and
then promptly went bankrupt. There was a huge mess where the FCC then
took back the spectrum and auctioned it off to others, leading to a huge
debate as to whether or not that was allowed since NextWave claimed the
spectrum licenses were really assets that, under bankruptcy, couldn't be
taken back. In the end, NextWave did end up with the spectrum, but were
told to actually do something with it, instead of just selling it off.
They promptly began to sell it off. Now, however, they claim that they
really (no, really, really) have plans to actually do something with
some of the spectrum, but only in the Northwest, as they're selling off
everything else, and only after they've sold off everything else so
they'll actually have the cash. They spin the lack of nationwide
spectrum into the buzzwordy "super-regional footprint" that doesn't mean
very much. As with many of NextWave's claims, it may pay to wait and see
before believing that they'll ever actually offer this service.

===============================================================================================

NextWave Keeps Trying
by Lynette Luna - 6/8/2004

Despite industry cynicism, bankrupt NextWave Telecom continues to work
its strategy to emerge from the bankruptcy courts as an all-IP wireless
broadband network operator providing wholesalers with the opportunity to
offer last-mile mobile access.
The company has been in bankruptcy since 1998, after over-bidding for
C-block PCS spectrum, and has fought a highly contentious battle with
the Federal Communications Commission to keep its licenses. NextWave
officials now say it is shoring up its spectrum holdings to create a
super-regional footprint that will put the company into position to
reorganize before the end of the year.

This week, NextWave asked the bankruptcy court for permission to auction
the company’s FCC license rights to six 10-megahertz 1.9 GHz licenses in
New York, Denver, Portland, Sarasota and Tampa, Fla., and Tulsa, Okla.
NextWave’s announcement follows a settlement reached in April with the
FCC to clear up NextWave’s debt to the commission by relinquishing the
majority of its spectrum before the end of the year. The agreement
includes four licenses NextWave plans to auction. When all is done,
NextWave will hold a footprint of 65 million POPs concentrated primarily
in the Northeast—significantly less than its starting point of 172
million POPs nationwide.

“The super-regional footprint we’re retaining presents an attractive
opportunity to deploy a next-generation broadband wireless network that
can provide high-speed data and Voice-over IP to a broad range of
consumer and enterprise customers,” said NextWave Chairman and Chief
Executive officer Allen Salmasi, who has consistently fought off
assertions that NextWave will cash out all of its licenses.

NextWave’s planned auction also will provide the company with a quicker
path to a clean balance sheet.. Salmasi says the company plans to pay
all of its remaining creditors in full, using its existing cash reserve
of more than $450 million, allowing the company to reorganize before
year-end.

NextWave’s goal is to load commercial customers onto its network this
year, said Jim Madsen, senior vice president of NextWave. “What we’re
going to be doing over the next several months is what we’ve been doing
quietly already: testing broadband technologies, gathering data and
figuring out marketing and pricing.”

NextWave has not announced its technology choice for its planned
broadband network. The company has been actively testing a variety of
solutions, including WiMax, Flarion’s OFDM technology, TD-CDMA and CDMA
1x EV-DO, said Madsen.
The company’s strategy of becoming a wholesale provider of wireless
services has evolved significantly since the company’s founders first
conceived the business plan 10 years ago.  NextWave originally was to be
the pre-eminent nationwide mobile virtual network operator (MVNO),
having signed a wholesale voice services deal with MCI in the late
1990s. Today, broadband wireless is racing onto the scene. The strategy
is validated by Verizon Wireless’ $1 billion nationwide rollout of 1x
EV-DO services.
“With a broadband network our [wholesale] strategy is more applicable
than ever,” said Madsen. “There are a number of potential entities that
want last-mile access to all-IP on top of wireless. They would love the
opportunity to offer that kind of service.”

http://bbedge.mblast.com/presentation/page798-928807.asp

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