WASHINGTON—One of the major players in the PCS C-block saga said on Tuesday that a negotiated settlement is probably not the way to go because it will not give everyone what they need.
“I think the best answer is to let the courts resolve this thing. The great thing about it finally being at the Supreme Court is hopefully we get the final resolution of the NextWave matter. … I think what is important is finality. … The difficulty with this process is that there are so many constituents involved that it is not clear to me that you can get certainty and finality in anything other than a Supreme Court decision. I am not saying that necessarily we will get certainty and finality with a Supreme Court decision, but my Seventh Grade civics class said that is supposed to be the way it works,” said John Stanton, chief executive officer of VoiceStream Wireless Corp.
Stanton was talking to reporters following an appearance, in his role as CEO of Western Wireless Corp., before a joint hearing of the Senate Commerce and Indian Affairs Committees where he pleaded for legislative help in granting eligible telecommunications carrier status to competitors on Indian reservations.
VoiceStream has already begun to buy needed spectrum rather than wait for the spectrum it was awarded in the re-auction of bankrupt NextWave Telecom Inc.’s spectrum, said Stanton.
“We still stand ready at VoiceStream to buy spectrum in places where we need it but we—like virtually every other carrier—have bought spectrum in some of the markets during the period of time between when the uncertainty over the [re-auction] began and today. We are going to be able to grow the business. We, and I believe other carriers, don’t need all the spectrum we bought at that auction,” said Stanton.
Recently Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has attempted to restart settlement negotiations to end the litigation regarding the disputed NextWave licenses.
A negotiated settlement reached last fall was not endorsed by Congress by the year-end deadline.
“I am not criticizing the process. I am certainly not criticizing Sen. Stevens. I am just saying that any brokered settlement is going to give all of the parties what they want. In this litigious climate, you have to be able to deal with all of the parties, not just a group,” said Stanton.
Stanton is now the second CEO to be publicly pessimistic of the prospects for a settlement. Dennis Strigl of Verizon Wireless Inc. also recently dismissed the notion of another settlement.
VoiceStream has joined Verizon in a lawsuit at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit seeking to void the re-auction based on a D.C. Circuit decision reached June 22 which said the Federal Communications Commission erred when it canceled, reallocated and re-auctioned NextWave’s C- and F-block licenses for nonpayment. The D.C. Circuit said the Bankruptcy Code protected the licenses. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case next fall with a decision expected in early 2003. It is unclear, however, if the Supreme Court’s ruling will end the case since the D.C. Circuit in its June decision left unresolved issues that NextWave is expected to litigate should it lose at the Supreme Court.
