Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Nextwave Telecom Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (799)	5/8/2002 6:18:26 PM
From: Dennis Roth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1088

New NextWave Negotiations Begin dc.internet.com By Roy Mark The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice (DoJ) have filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that allowing NextWave Telecom to keep its wireless licenses after it failed to meet its obligations under its winning spectrum bid is not in the public interest. In 1996, the Hawthorne, N.Y.-based NextWave submitted a winning bid of $4.7 billion for a chunk of wireless spectrum being auctioned by the FCC. When NextWave failed to meet its payment obligations and filed for bankruptcy, the FCC seized the spectrum licenses and held another auction, bringing in another $16 billion in bids. Subsequently, a bankruptcy court ruled that the FCC did not have the authority to repossess the NextWave licenses, a decision upheld by a federal appeals court last year. The federal appeal is now pending before the Supreme Court, prompting the briefs submitted by the FCC and the DoJ earlier this week. NextWave is expected to file its briefs next month. In their briefs, the FCC and the DoJ said the power to allocate spectrum belongs to the government and not the courts. The government attorneys said the court's decision to interfere in the spectrum auction process has unduly delayed the ability of the government to ration scarce resources. As the lawyers did their legal maneuverings, representatives from NextWave, Verizon Wireless and other winners of the second auction met in Sen. Ted Stevens (R. Alaska) office on Tuesday in hopes of reviving last year's failed compromise negotiations. In the wake of last year's court order tossing out the second spectrum auction results, the FCC sought to broker a $16 billion compromise but the agreement fell apart when Congress failed to pass legislation needed to ratify the deal.