NextWave wins highest number of AWS licenses in FCC auction
154 AWS Licenses Expand NextWave’s U.S. Spectrum Footprint to over 242 million POPs
September 18, 2006
AWS Wireless, a wholly owned subsidiary of NextWave Wireless LLC, announced today it has been declared the provisional winning bidder, in the AWS auction, conducted by the Federal Communications Commission, for 154 Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) licenses covering 63 million people in the United States. The licenses, subject to final FCC regulatory approval, include markets such as Pittsburgh, Puerto Rico, Indianapolis, Sacramento, New Orleans, Tulsa, Little Rock, El Paso, Albany, Louisville, Sarasota, Anchorage, and Fort Myers.
As one of 168 bidders qualified to participate in the AWS auction, NextWave bid a total of $115.5 million for 154 AWS licenses at an average price of $0.12 per MHz-POP. The total amount bid by all participants in the auction exceeded $13.8 billion, at an average price of $0.51 per MHz-POP. NextWave’s bid total is less than the $143 million up-front deposit it paid to the FCC prior to the auction, entitling the company to a return of approximately $28 million.
“We are delighted with the results of the AWS auction. With these new AWS licenses our nationwide spectrum footprint has grown to over 242 million pops and covers 10 of the top 10 and 21 of the top 25 cities in the country,” said Allen Salmasi, president and chief executive officer of NextWave Wireless LLC. “We also applaud the FCC for designing and implementing a highly efficient and sound auction that sold over 1,100 licenses in just 28 days.”
NextWave is currently developing WiMAX semiconductors and other wireless broadband technologies for mobile device and network infrastructure manufacturers and for wireless service operators. “We believe that the combination of our nationwide spectrum and our innovative mobile broadband technologies, which are slated to begin field trials in 2007, has given us the ability to provide our future service provider partners with the opportunity to offer exciting and ground-breaking mobile broadband services to consumers,” Salmasi added.
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