Cingular may buy some NextWave licenses

Cingular Wireless has been mentioned this week as the latest in a long line of companies rumored to be closing in on an acquisition of some of the PCS licenses owned by embattled NextWave.

In years past, and as recently as last year, Verizon Wireless was reportedly close to purchasing the licenses from the firm that originally won them in a 1996 auction, and later saw them revoked by the FCC after the companany missed license payments and filed for bankruptcy. Other carriers reportedly have been interested particularly in NextWave’s most significant license, the one covering the New York City market.

Though published reports this week stated Cingular and NextWave are now close to a deal that could involve Cingular buying up to 20% of the licenses--including the New York license--for between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion, neither company has publicly acknowledged that any deal is imminent.

Former NextWave employees and other people close to the company were unable to shed light on the potential deal, though one observer told Telephony, “[NextWave] wants to make a go of it operating these licenses, but it may have to give some of them up to survive, and New York is too competitive for a new company. Supposedly, Cingular wants to be in New York.”

The source admitted to have no knowledge of whether published estimates concerning the value of the deal were correct, but added that the company “has always believed it could get a premium on the licenses.”