Judge Hardin needs our positive thoughts. As he tries to make some sense out of the NextWave Telecom Inc. bankruptcy case, Hardin will find himself in the middle of some savvy wireless players that have spent a lot of time trying to manipulate just about everything they can to get the scales of justice weighted in their favor.
NextWave, Nextel Communications Inc. and the Federal Communications Commission are all veterans of the court of law and the court of public opinion. All three entities have bounced from one to another like they are playing a game of Hot Potato.
If Justice wasn’t already blind, she would tie the blindfold on herself in this case-but that is exactly what makes it so fun to watch.
While Nextel shouldn’t figure in Hardin’s ruling-and by no means do I expect the case to be resolved any time soon-Nextel has added some spice to this proceeding.
While the enhanced SMR carrier has enjoyed favored wireless status with Wall Street, no company has been so flat-out disliked within the wireless industry as Nextel. About every other month, I receive some type of correspondence from someone (usually an anonymous reader) who has written a joke or letter disparaging Nextel. My favorite was a photo of a group of SMR workers huddled over a Nextel corporate sign (at night), with a sign that said “Will work for food.”
Nextel’s wireless success dramatically changed the wireless industry. In contrast, AT&T also shook up the industry with its Digital One Rate plan, but I don’t see near the venom from AT&T’s detractors.
NextWave also hasn’t enjoyed much love within the wireless industry or at the FCC. In fact, the only time NextWave enjoyed much sympathy from its wireless peers was when Nextel tried to go after NextWave’s licenses. That was pretty short-lived, however. The minute other wireless players found they may be eligible to acquire NextWave’s licenses, any sympathetic ears turned deaf to NextWave’s plight.
Meanwhile, the FCC did not endear itself to anyone in wireless (except Nextel) when it agreed to a plan for Nextel to take over NextWave’s licenses. The FCC and NextWave have continually clashed with each other since NextWave successfully bid on the PCS licenses in the C-block auction. (The FCC said NextWave illegally lobbied government and questioned its foreign ownership levels, among other things.) NextWave has tried to do a few end runs around the FCC in Congress, which certainly hasn’t promoted the relationship between the two.
Hardin is probably going to just stick to the issues, but in this case, the players add the drama.
