NextWave Telecom Inc.’s announcement to sell its remaining 1.9 GHz licenses to Verizon Wireless for $3 billion may not mean the end of one of the industry’s most controversial players. In association with the sale, NextWave filed papers with its bankruptcy court noting a name change and plans to continue its attempt to launch a wireless broadband network.
“The acquisition is not the end of the story for NextWave, but a new beginning,” the company ominously touts in the court filings.
NextWave, which has sold a significant portion of its once-formidable spectrum portfolio to numerous carriers during the past year for more than $5.5 billion and given the remaining portion back to the Federal Communications Commission in exchange for the right to sell its spectrum, said that pending approval of the sale to Verizon Wireless, NextWave would change its name to NextWave Opco as part of its reorganization process.
The new organization will retain 24 megahertz of broadband radio spectrum in Las Vegas that NextWave has been using to trial an undisclosed wireless broadband technology. NextWave said it “plans to build IP-based wireless networks designed to provide both high-speed fixed/mobile Internet access and VoIP services,” adding that it currently is working with an unnamed wireless broadband technology company that is assisting with the adoption of NextWave’s planned services.
NextWave said that based on the results of the current technical trials, it intends to expand the Las Vegas trial to full commercial service by the end of next year.
NextWave also claims that upon confirmation of the sale to Verizon Wireless, it plans to pay its existing creditors and shareholders via a distribution of cash and interest in the newly formed operating company. It added that once its soon-to-be filed reorganization plan is approved it will “transform the estates from a multibillion-dollar insolvency, to not only solvency, but also to a well-positioned new operational company.”
