Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel to pay $5B for 1.9 GHz spectrum

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2004 14:16:58 -0400

Nextel to pay $5B for 1.9 GHz spectrum
By Heather Forsgren Weaver
July 08 13:07:00, 2004

Nextel Communications Inc. will pay nearly $5 billion in both cash and
spectrum to gain access to spectrum in the 1.9 GHz
band, according to a plan adopted Thursday by the Federal Communications
Commission to solve public-safety interference in
the 800 MHz band.

FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy said the plan was “costly, complex
and critical.”

The FCC has valued the 1.9 GHz spectrum at $4.8 billion. It has valued
the 800 MHz and 700 MHz band spectrum that
Nextel will relinquish as part of the reconfiguration at $1.6 billion.
Nextel is required to secure a letter of credit for $2.5 billion
to pay for the relocation costs of public-safety, private wireless,
other ESMRs and the broadcast auxiliary service.
If the relocation costs, including Nextel’s own costs plus the value of
the spectrum it relinquishes, is less than $4.8 billion,
Nextel will pay an anti-windfall payment to the U.S. Treasury. Concerns
have been expressed by Verizon Wireless and others
that Nextel was receiving valuable spectrum for less than it is worth.
By assessing an anti-windfall payment, the FCC hopes to
quiet those complaints.

However, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association released
a statement criticizing the decision. "Giving up such
valuable spectrum without a public auction means the U.S. Treasury is
losing billions of dollars. Those funds could've been used

to provide public safety with money to make much-needed improvements in
the vital care it provides all of us," said CTIA
President Steve Largent.

http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=18777

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