Cingular May Buy Some NextWave Spectrum
Ever since Nextwave won back their spectrum from an ill-conceived FCC repossession, there have been lots of rumors about how they plan on using it. They're sitting on a valuable resource, and every company in the industry want to 'help' them take advantage of it..."using our technology, of course". Meanwhile, NextWave appears to be sticking to its plan to become a carrier's carrier, installing a high-speed 3G data network and providing the underlying data services that other carriers would re-sell to their customers. How to fund the massive national network build-out? Sell a 20% slice of your bandwidth, as a news story today suggests they may do with Cingular for $1.5B. This makes sense for both parties, since Cingular is tighter for spectrum than other carriers. However, I was under the impression that one of the requirements of NextWave's repossession of the airwaves was that they actually use them, and do not just sell them for cash. Anyone?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
