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Technology Stocks : Leap Wireless International (LWIN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: METMAN who wrote (214)	3/22/1999 10:43:00 PM
From: straight life	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2737

Leap bidding status still uncertain WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - Leap Wireless International Inc. (Nasdaq:LWIN - news) will be bidding in this week's U.S. wireless license auction but federal regulators could bounce it from the proceedings shortly thereafter. The wireless telecommunications provider, spun off from Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq:QCOM - news) last year, is hoping to win licenses reserved mainly for new and small businesses at a Federal Communications Commission auction starting on Tuesday. The problem is an option Qualcomm retained to purchase about 18 percent of Leap's stock. Under FCC rules, the possible ownership stake by Qualcomm, with more than $3 billion in sales last year, could make San Diego, California-based Leap ineligible to bid for most of the licenses at the auction. Leap officials on Monday declined to comment. The FCC conditionally approved Leap as a bidder for so-called C-Block and F-Block licenses at Tuesday's auction. More than 95 percent of the 347 licenses being offered are in those two blocks. FCC officials said Leap's qualification as a bidder could be revoked when the company's status as a small business is decided. That decision could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. On March 5, Leap asked for 30 more days to amend its original qualification request made last year. The March 5 letter followed complaints from the U.S. Small Business Administration and other wireless carriers that Leap should not qualify for the new and small company licenses. FCC officials on Monday said they had not received Leap's amended request yet. The issue first arose in October, when Leap sought to acquire four wireless licenses for $20 million from Airgate Wireless LLC. Airgate won the licenses, covering several cities in North and South Carolina, at a previous government auction reserved for new and small companies. Under FCC rules, if the C-block licenses are transferred to a company that would not have qualified for the auction, the acquirer must pay a substantial penalty. So Leap asked the FCC to qualify it as a ''very small business'' under the agency's rules. That would allow Leap and its Cricket Holdings subsidiary to buy the Airgate licenses without paying a penalty and also to participate in the upcoming auction. The Small Business Administration and competitors objected, arguing that if Qualcomm exercised its option, Leap would not qualify.

To: METMAN who wrote (214)	3/23/1999 4:02:00 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2737

Metman, re BCICF [Bell Canada Intl] sorry but I have no idea. I guess that a large part of Leap's brief was always to bid on the C-block reissues since NextWave failed in the effort due to the chance of rebidding and getting a bargain meant it was better to pack up and try again another day. With Korea getting in financial desperation, I suppose funding would have been tough for NextWave anyway. The silly situation which the FCC is in of considering declining bids from Leap is loopy. The whole idea of giving special privilege to people with sunsafe skin, people with gender or other disabilities and companies with some arbitrary market capitalisation or years since registration is absurd. They should just open the bids to any legal entity on earth [other than certain criminals or out of favour types such as Ghadafi, Saddam Hussein, Milosevic, or Bin Laden]. That way the taxpaying public or shareholders in the USA government would get the biggest bang for their buck [more accurately, the bidders would pay bigger bucks and the auction would go with a bang instead of a fizz]. The Cricket flat-rate $30 plan has been around for years. Q! had thought in terms of six-packs of handsets and really cheap minutes years ago. That time seems to be arriving. 6 packs of ThinPhones won't take up much space either, so they'll go under Xmas trees easily enough. What a great family gift. Maurice @417