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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JGoren who wrote (4682)	11/18/2000 11:56:00 AM
From: Eric L	Respond to of 196951

JG, My understanding is that, unlike the original "C-Block" auctions, 100% of the license price is due upon conclusion of bidding in this auction. This is obviously a pretty awkward situation. I'm wonderind if you would care to comment? >> *LEGAL WRANGLING COULD DAMAGE U.S. SPECTRUM AUCTION* Jeremy Pelofsky Reuters 17 November 2000 The protracted legal wrangling over wireless licenses repossessed from NextWave Telecom Inc. and soon to be reauctioned could depress the bidding for the licenses, a top Federal Communications Commission official said on Thursday. NextWave, which is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, has two appeals pending to retain 90 licenses it won at auction in 1996 but later lost when the Hawthorne, N.Y.- based company failed to make timely payments. Despite the legal challenges now at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and at the Supreme Court, the FCC is scheduled to sell those licenses as part of a bigger auction starting Dec. 12. However, the FCC in its public notice for the auction said if NextWave was ultimately successful in its court challenges to win back its licenses, the companies that had bought the repossessed licenses would have to relinquish them but would be reimbursed. "I found that suggestion could potentially have a very chilling effect on the auction and on what might potentially happen after the auction," FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth told reporters. Large carriers like Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS Group, Cingular and AT&T Wireless Group Inc. and smaller companies like Leap Wireless Inc. and Cook Inlet are expected to bid for the licenses so they can further deploy wireless services. "What comfort is that if a successful bidder has started to build out its network?" said Rudy Baca, an analyst at the independent research firm The Precursor Group. "You'll get you're money back, big whoop. What (the companies) want is the spectrum," he said. The FCC has been pushing ahead to auction 422 licenses for the airwaves, the so-called C and F block licenses, a sale that analysts expect could raise between $16 billion and $25 billion. Carriers are so hungry for more airwaves that they may not fully incorporate the risks when they bid, Baca said but disagreed that companies will bid low for the airwaves. "The FCC is giving these companies what they have asked for, these auctions," he said. "It may cause them to bid more than they normally would because of the legal cloud." Earlier this week, the U.S. appeals court refused to grant NextWave's request to delay the auction until the court determined whether the repossession of the licenses was legal but did agree to hear the appeal quickly. The first brief in NextWave's appeal is due one day before the auction begins, Dec. 11, and the final brief is not due until Jan 31, 2001, which could be long after the auction concludes. The Supreme Court, which has declined to hear one appeal by NextWave, has another company appeal pending before it. "I think it's an issue for the courts to resolve," Furchtgott-Roth said. "We're getting pretty close to a final resolution but I think pending a final resolution I would not proceed with the auction." << - Eric -