NEWS: Court Approves Sale of 34 NextWave Licenses to Cingular

http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030925/1559001066_2.html

Court Approves Sale of 34 NextWave Licenses to Cingular
Thursday September 25, 3:59 pm ET
By Marc Hopkins, Of Dow Jones Newswires

WASHINGTON -- With no competing offers raising the sale price, the
bankruptcy court handling the NextWave Telecom Inc. case awarded wireless
licenses to bidder Cingular Wireless LLC for $1.4 billion in cash.
The decision by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., strengthens
Cingular Wireless coverage in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston,
Chicago and Washington.

The deal has been brewing for weeks with Cingular, which became the
anticipated purchaser after other parties missed a Sept. 15 deadline to make
competing bids for the 34 licenses up for auction. Cingular is a joint
venture between BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS - News) and SBC Communications
Inc. (NYSE:SBC - News) .

Under bankruptcy laws, companies trying to sell assets while operating under
Chapter 11 protection must submit to an auction even when there is a buyer
available for the property. The auction assures creditors the best offer is
obtained to provide the greatest recovery for debts.

NextWave has been under Chapter 11 protection since 1998. The company won a
long court battle earlier this year to keep its wireless licenses and worked
out an agreement with the Federal Communications Commission (News -
Websites) to develop an approach that would allow the proposed sale to
proceed -- subject to regulatory approval -- while the company and the
agency continue to workout their differences.

A term sheet that NextWave negotiated with the FCC entitles the agency to
receive at least $714 million directly from Cingular on account of its
claims against NextWave related to the 34 licenses.

The term sheet provides that NextWave and the FCC would grant releases to
each other from claims related to the licenses, and the agency also would
receive third-party releases from all other creditors and equity holders in
the Chapter 11 case in connection to claims and lawsuits related to the
licenses.

-By Marc Hopkins; Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-1362;
[email protected]

---

› See More: NEWS: Court Approves Sale of 34 NextWave Licenses to Cingular

So what does this mean in San Francisco? More bandwidth means better
service and more cell sites coming on line?

Or is it more bandwidth for overpriced services such as GPRS?

What does it mean to the enduser, Cingular purchasing more licenses?


In article <t8Icb.5267$Rd4.1976@fed1read07>, "CK" <[email protected]> wrote:

> http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030925/1559001066_2.html
>
> Court Approves Sale of 34 NextWave Licenses to Cingular
> Thursday September 25, 3:59 pm ET
> By Marc Hopkins, Of Dow Jones Newswires
>
> WASHINGTON -- With no competing offers raising the sale price, the
> bankruptcy court handling the NextWave Telecom Inc. case awarded wireless
> licenses to bidder Cingular Wireless LLC for $1.4 billion in cash.
> The decision by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., strengthens
> Cingular Wireless coverage in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston,
> Chicago and Washington.
>
> The deal has been brewing for weeks with Cingular, which became the
> anticipated purchaser after other parties missed a Sept. 15 deadline to make
> competing bids for the 34 licenses up for auction. Cingular is a joint
> venture between BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS - News) and SBC Communications
> Inc. (NYSE:SBC - News) .
>
> Under bankruptcy laws, companies trying to sell assets while operating under
> Chapter 11 protection must submit to an auction even when there is a buyer
> available for the property. The auction assures creditors the best offer is
> obtained to provide the greatest recovery for debts.
>
> NextWave has been under Chapter 11 protection since 1998. The company won a
> long court battle earlier this year to keep its wireless licenses and worked
> out an agreement with the Federal Communications Commission (News -
> Websites) to develop an approach that would allow the proposed sale to
> proceed -- subject to regulatory approval -- while the company and the
> agency continue to workout their differences.
>
> A term sheet that NextWave negotiated with the FCC entitles the agency to
> receive at least $714 million directly from Cingular on account of its
> claims against NextWave related to the 34 licenses.
>
> The term sheet provides that NextWave and the FCC would grant releases to
> each other from claims related to the licenses, and the agency also would
> receive third-party releases from all other creditors and equity holders in
> the Chapter 11 case in connection to claims and lawsuits related to the
> licenses.
>
> -By Marc Hopkins; Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-1362;
> [email protected]
>
>
>
>
>

Yazzan Gable <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> So what does this mean in San Francisco? More bandwidth means better
> service and more cell sites coming on line?

I don't know if any of those licenses cover SF. Generally more bandwidth
means less "system busy" and wer dropped calls.

> Or is it more bandwidth for overpriced services such as GPRS?

....and that too! ;-)

> What does it mean to the enduser, Cingular purchasing more licenses?

Many of those licenses are in cities that Cingular doesn't currently cover,
so Cingular- not really a "nationwide" company despite being #2 in
wireless - gets to expand into more markets.

"Yazzan Gable" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> So what does this mean in San Francisco? More bandwidth means better
> service and more cell sites coming on line?
>
> Or is it more bandwidth for overpriced services such as GPRS?
>
> What does it mean to the enduser, Cingular purchasing more licenses?
>
>
> In article <t8Icb.5267$Rd4.1976@fed1read07>, "CK" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030925/1559001066_2.html
> >
> > Court Approves Sale of 34 NextWave Licenses to Cingular
> > Thursday September 25, 3:59 pm ET
> > By Marc Hopkins, Of Dow Jones Newswires

More capacity for voice and data. Their press release emphasizes that
they are buying mainly in their existing markets.
http://www.cingular.com/about/latest_news/03_08_05
http://www.nextwavetel.com/news/pres..._agreement.pdf

There is an additional pair of releases on Cingular's purchase of
additional spectrum. One concerns the cellular properties of US Unwired
in Lake Charles and southwestern Louisiana, and more PCS licenses.
http://www.cingular.com/about/latest_news/03_09_15_2
http://www.usunwired.com/
US Unwired is best known as a Sprint PCS affiliate. Their site doesn't
mention this transaction. Here's their map of their cellular coverage.
http://www.usunwired.com/wireless/bigmouth/coverage.asp

Cingular buys another 15 MHz of PCS in Ocala, Panama City, and
Tallahassee, Florida from Sunshine PCS.
http://www.cingular.com/about/latest_news/03_08_18
According to Sunshine PCS's home page, these three licenses are
(were) their entire assets.
http://www.sunshinepcs.com/index.html

John C.

Any idea how long it will be until this turns into reality for cell
phone users? I have ties in the Tyler/Jacksonville area.

"John Cummings" <[email protected]> wrote in article
<[email protected]>:
> "Yazzan Gable" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > So what does this mean in San Francisco? More bandwidth means better
> > service and more cell sites coming on line?
> >
> > Or is it more bandwidth for overpriced services such as GPRS?
> >
> > What does it mean to the enduser, Cingular purchasing more licenses?
> >
> >
> > In article <t8Icb.5267$Rd4.1976@fed1read07>, "CK" <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > > http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030925/1559001066_2.html
> > >
> > > Court Approves Sale of 34 NextWave Licenses to Cingular
> > > Thursday September 25, 3:59 pm ET
> > > By Marc Hopkins, Of Dow Jones Newswires
>
> More capacity for voice and data. Their press release emphasizes that
> they are buying mainly in their existing markets.
> http://www.cingular.com/about/latest_news/03_08_05
> http://www.nextwavetel.com/news/pres..._agreement.pdf
>
> There is an additional pair of releases on Cingular's purchase of
> additional spectrum. One concerns the cellular properties of US Unwired
> in Lake Charles and southwestern Louisiana, and more PCS licenses.
> http://www.cingular.com/about/latest_news/03_09_15_2
> http://www.usunwired.com/
> US Unwired is best known as a Sprint PCS affiliate. Their site doesn't
> mention this transaction. Here's their map of their cellular coverage.
> http://www.usunwired.com/wireless/bigmouth/coverage.asp
>
> Cingular buys another 15 MHz of PCS in Ocala, Panama City, and
> Tallahassee, Florida from Sunshine PCS.
> http://www.cingular.com/about/latest_news/03_08_18
> According to Sunshine PCS's home page, these three licenses are
> (were) their entire assets.
> http://www.sunshinepcs.com/index.html
>
> John C.
>
>

[posted via phonescoop.com]

"William Bray" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Any idea how long it will be until this turns into reality for cell
> phone users? I have ties in the Tyler/Jacksonville area.

Which state? I would expect from one to two years elapsing from
license acquisition to sites being built and turned on. Less
time if a site for the antennas is already available (existing
tower or building for antenna support, with existing wireless).
More time if starting from unprepared sites, needing zoning
changes.

John C.