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To: Caxton Rhodes who wrote (107)	2/27/1998 3:17:00 PM
From: Caxton Rhodes	Respond to of 1088

FCC Gives C-Block PCS Licensees More Time To Pay By Heather Fleming at Bloomberg News 25-FEB-98 The US Federal Communications Commission gave small companies that won next- generation cellular licenses more time to decide how they'll pay for the licenses. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ The move also gave the agency itself time to mull over potential changes to its debt-payment options. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ The FCC is considering changing a plan to help smaller companies pay for their so-called personal communications services, or PCS, licenses they won at auction two years ago, FCC officials said. Because changes could make a significant difference for license-holders, the FCC pushed back the decision- date from February 26 to 60 days after the FCC publishes its revised payment option plan in the Federal Register. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ FCC commissioner Susan Ness said she agreed "reluctantly" to the extension because she's opposed to prolonging the reconsideration process. "Continuing to consider changes to our rules delays the marketplace certainty that must exist in order for systems to be financed and constructed," she said in a statement. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ The commission last September voted to give a second chance to companies having trouble raising money to pay for their PCS licenses and build their networks. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Only companies with less than $125 million in annual revenue were permitted to bid on these particular licenses, so they were given special financing terms, including installment payments, that other PCS companies didn't have. Still, after bidding $10.2 billion for 493 "C-Block" licenses, winning bidders asked the commission for more help meeting their payments. The agency came up with a plan last September to help the companies, but NextWave Telecom Inc., General Wireless Inc. and other license winners said it didn't go far enough. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ "The commission is seriously considering affording the C- block bidders more flexibility consistent with the options in the original order," FCC chairman William Kennard said in a statement issued last week. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ The agency is considering a proposal to let companies pick market-by-market which licenses they want to keep and reducing their debt by a proportional amount. The five FCC commissioners are also looking at whether license holders that hand-back licenses should have to forfeit a 10% down payment. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Under the FCC's original plan, license winners can restart their debt payment on an installment plan, return the licenses and forfeit their down payments, hand back half the airwaves they are licensed to use in exchange for halving their debt, or pay up front for as many licenses as they can afford, with 70% of the company's down payment counted against the payment. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ The FCC today decided to push back the date licensees would resume making their installment payments, if that's the option they chose, from March 31, 1998, to "a date at least 30 days after the revised election date" for selecting a debt-payment option, the agency said. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ The agency voted to give the license holders the payment options before Kennard and three new FCC commissioners were sworn in to office late last year. Ness, the sole hold-over from the five-person panel, opposes significant changes to the rules.

To: Caxton Rhodes who wrote (107)	2/27/1998 3:24:00 PM
From: Caxton Rhodes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1088

FCC grants NextWave reprieve on U.S. debt ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Penni Crabtree STAFF WRITER \| Dispatches from Bloomberg News and the Associated Press were used in this report. 25-Feb-1998 Wednesday NextWave Telecom Inc. has won a reprieve in dealing with its $4.2 billion debt to the federal government. The Federal Communications Commission announced yesterday that the San Diego-based firm and others who bid billions for wireless phone licenses will have more time to decide how to pay for them. Companies will have until roughly June to choose a course of relief, rather than Thursday, which was the latest deadline by which the companies had to act. The extended deadline also gives the FCC time to consider making changes to a restructuring order it issued in September, outlining four methods by which the companies could seek relief. Many companies, including NextWave, have asked the FCC for additional concessions. "We still don't know what options the FCC will offer, but at least we don't have to make a decision for a while," said Kevin Christiano, a spokesman for NextWave, which won 95 licenses with its $4.2 billion bid in the auction. "We believe that mild adjustments are still needed to improve upon the options the FCC offered in September." The problem arose two years ago when winners in an airwaves auction reserved for small businesses pledged $10.2 billion for licenses for the next generation of wireless communications, known as PCS. After the auction, many of the companies said they couldn't pay for the new mobile phone licenses and asked the FCC for relief. In September the FCC told companies they could choose one of four pay-back options: <Picture>Continue making installment payments on licenses won at auction. <Picture>Return some or a portion of their licenses to be reauctioned. Their debt would be reduced proportionately. <Picture>Use 70 percent of their initial down payments to the government to buy as many licenses as they can afford. Licenses they can't pay for would be returned to be reauctioned. <Picture>Give back, without penalty, licenses they can't pay for to be reauctioned and surrender their deposits. At the companies' request, the FCC is now considering letting them pick market by market which licenses they want to keep and reducing their debt by a proportional amount. The FCC is also looking at whether license holders that hand back licenses should have to forfeit a 10 percent down payment. NextWave, which has 100 employees, 20 of them at its San Diego headquarters, said additional concessions to the relief plan would allow the company to forge partnerships and find financing to build PCS networks, including one in San Diego. "We have 25 different companies lined up to buy a total of 35 billion minutes of air time -- that is our backlog," said Christiano. "We're anxious to get a reasonable restructuring order so we can build those networks."