Report: NextWave to sell licenses

NextWave Telecom reportedly reached a tentative agreement to sell its PCS spectrum for $5.8 billion to winners of the January reauction conducted after the FCC reclaimed the licenses because the bankrupt carrier failed to make payments.

An appeals court earlier this year ruled that the FCC should not have reclaimed the licenses, because they should have been protected as one of NextWave’s bankrupt assets. The ruling jeopardized the January auction, in which spectrum-hungry operators bid more than $16 billion for NextWave’s spectrum.

If executed, the unprecedented deal would give NextWave investors an immediate return on their investment in the company and let January auction winners proceed with plans to expand their networks. While the U.S. government would realize about 60% of the revenues expected from the January auction, the $10 billion amount is more than double what NextWave would have paid for the spectrum if the appeals-court ruling was upheld.

—Donny Jackson, news editor