Nextwave To Trade More Spectrum For Capital

Would-be wireless carrier Nextwave is back in the news in a rumored sale of $3B in spectrum licenses to Verizon Wireless. The cash from the license sale could either be used to line pockets, or to fund network build-out, depending on who you ask. Recall that Nextwave bought wide national spectrum licenses back in 1996, but never had the capital to launch a network, OR make payments on the licenses. In selling off chunks of spectrum, they are hopefully raising the funds needed to deploy and actually offer services to the US citizenry. While Mike and I have both been skeptical of Nextwave through the years, I'm starting to bear hope that they will soon provide a BWA service as a carrier's carrier in multiple regions. The reason for my optimism is that numerous technologies (UMTS TDD, FlashOFDM) are now readily available to support the NextWave business plan. Mike is less generous, and points to the long track record of not offering service.

Filed Under: spectrum