NextWave Telecom Announces iBridge - the First Affordable Wireless High-Speed Internet Access to Homes and Small Businesses
October 14, 1999
HAWTHORNE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via NewsEdge Corporation --
New Service to Launch in San Diego; Available in Over 40 U.S. Markets By End of 2000
NextWave Telecom, Inc., today announced its entry into the high-speed wireless Internet market with the introduction of iBridge, the first wireless service specifically designed to provide affordable high-speed Internet access and a low-cost alternative to local telephone service for tens of millions of consumers and small businesses.
Based on next-generation digital wireless technology, this leading-edge service will be offered across the country to meet the explosive demand for high-speed access to the Internet. "For the first time millions of consumers and small businesses will have an affordable and convenient way to be freed from their slow dial-up Internet connections and experience the future of broadband, 'always-on', Internet access," said Allen Salmasi, NextWave Telecom's chairman and CEO.
iBridge's 'always on' wireless Internet connection ends the inconvenience of dial-up and busy signals, and provides users with Internet access speeds more than 20 times faster than the typical dial-up connection used in American homes. Consumers will experience dramatically reduced waiting times and will finally be able to take full advantage of increasingly popular multimedia Internet applications such as full-motion-video, CD-quality music, interactive education through university and high school extension programs, online three-dimensional gaming, and video conferencing.
"Millions of consumers and small businesses have been trapped across the digital divide," added Salmasi. "The problem is that in too many cases, high-speed Internet access is simply not available to consumers and small businesses, or it's just too expensive. That's why less than one percent of the homes and schools in the U.S. have high-speed Internet access today. "
"iBridge is an innovative, low-cost solution that will be available nationwide, enabling consumers to tap into the full multimedia potential of the Internet. iBridge will also provide residential and small business customers with complete local telephone service. Customers and small businesses will receive up to 16 wireless 'telephone lines' that fully use their house wiring and existing telephones. iBridge can either replace or complement their existing local telephone service."
NextWave plans to launch its iBridge service on a commercial basis in San Diego within 60-90 days after its confirmation and will be introduced in over 40 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Houston, Baltimore/Washington, D.C., and Denver in 2000.
Another advantage to iBridge is its ability to provide customers with rapid service activation. Unlike other approaches to high-speed Internet service, such as DSL or cable modems, that often require customers to wait weeks or months for activation, NextWave's iBridge is designed to provide customer activation within forty-eight hours of the time an order is placed. " Because iBridge is wirefree, we don't have to dig up neighborhoods laying expensive cables or new telephone lines to the customer's home or business in order to provide our service. In many cases we expect to activate a customer the same day they place an order within our coverage area, including areas not currently served by cable, copper wire or fiber installations," Salmasi said.
"NextWave's investors and vendors have pledged nearly a billion dollars of new equity to support and enable the independent build-out of the Company's innovative nationwide broadband fixed wireless and PCS network," said Salmasi. "The solid commitment provided to NextWave by the investment community and equipment vendors also extends to supporting the Company as it works towards confirmation of its reorganization plan." NextWave, which is currently operating under bankruptcy protection, expects confirmation of its reorganization plan and its emergence from Chapter 11 before the end of the year.
NextWave will offer its iBridge service to consumers and small businesses through a network of highly experienced service distribution partners uniquely qualified to market and support the iBridge service. The Company intends to partner with Internet Service Providers ("ISPs"), Internet portal and content providers, long distance companies, Competitive Local Exchange Carriers ("CLECs"), Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers ("ILECs"), Value-Added Resellers (VARs) and other companies to distribute its iBridge service. NextWave's wholesale business plan has also long been recognized as an unparalleled opportunity for minority and other small business entities to enter the wireless business through resale.
About NextWave
NextWave Telecom, Inc., (www.nextwavetel.com) was organized in 1995 as a leading provider of wireless high-speed Internet access and voice communications services to the consumer and business market on a nationwide basis. NextWave holds a total of 95 PCS licenses, covering more than 166 million POPs coast to coast, that include all top 10 U.S. markets, 28 of the top 30 markets, and 40 of the top 50 markets. NextWave's carriers' carrier strategy will allow existing carriers and new service providers to market NextWave's network services through wholesale airtime arrangements offered by the company. In September 1999, NextWave announced that its Plan of Reorganization had been approved by its creditors and shareholders and that Texas Pacific Group, Oak Investment Partners and BFD Equity Associates are leading an investor group that has committed over $700 million of new equity to support NextWave's Plan of Reorganization. Other major investors include Bay Harbour Management, Joseph Littlejohn & Levy, Canyon Capital and other major financial institutions.
<<Business Wire, 10-13-99, 11:35 Eastern>>
CONTACT: Roy Berger | NextWave Telecom, Inc. | (914) 789-0305 | rberger@nextwavetel.com | or | Matthew Rose | The MWW Group | (201) 964-2376 | mrose@mww.com
[Copyright 1999, Business Wire]
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