For Now, NextWave Sees Opportunity In Business, Not Selling Out
BY MARK ROCKWELL
JANUARY 29, 2003
NEWS@2 DIRECT
WASHINGTON-NextWave Telecom apparently still is making noises about becoming a big wireless carrier.
While speculation swirls about whether or not the wireless license holder will sell off its spectrum or plow ahead with plans for selling wholesale digital airtime, the company's primary plan is 'going out and finding the best opportunity for our creditors and investors. There are lots of opportunity to deploy data services,' NextWave senior vice president Michael Wack says in an interview with Wireless Week.
NextWave said almost a year ago it had activated wireless networks in 60 of its 95 markets nationwide, at a cost of $100 million, but declined to specify at the time exactly what it had activated in those markets.
NextWave contends it has met the FCC's build-out requirements and is currently waiting for the commission to review 'demonstration filings' the company made a year ago that showed it is providing adequate service in at least 60 of its markets nationally, says Wack.
The company claims it has built out enough network infrastructure in those locations to serve 33 percent of the customers in areas where it owns C-block spectrum and 25 percent of customers in its D-, E- and F-block licensed markets, Wack says. Those percentages are in line with what the FCC requires, he says.
The FCC has yet to respond to those demonstrations of service, he adds. The intervening Supreme Court case has been a drag on the FCC's response, say NextWave and FCC officials.
FCC officials have said the company may have been given a little leeway in the build-out requirements, because making NextWave build out networks in areas where it might-or might not-have owned licenses would have been onerous, at best.
But NextWave officials say that partnerships or selling off some licenses could happen if the company finds that the market for data doesn't pan out.
In more fallout from the Supreme Court ruling this week that won NextWave its right to retain its PCS spectrum holdings, FCC Chairman Michael Powell said the NextWave experience had taught the FCC a few things about auctions.
In a briefing this morning with telecommunications reporters, he said he was concerned bidders in a future spectrum auction might use the cover of bankruptcy to avoid paying for their bids. He added the FCC would avoid acting as financier for minority-owned companies in future auctions.
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