The broadband personal communications services auctions held during the past two years have spawned a plethora of novel policy and fiscal issues for policymakers.The reason: $20 billion. Money changes everything, even in ways not altogether obvious. Federal regulators will insist licensing is still bound by...
Twelve of the 84 companies that won C-block licenses for personal communications services are still waiting to receive their license in hand.The Federal Communications Commission has issued 10-year licenses to 78 companies for 30 megahertz of spectrum at 1.9 GHz.The conditional licenses were granted...
It has been nearly five months since NextWave Telecom Inc., parent company of NextWave Personal Communications and NextWave Power Partners, submitted its S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its initial public offering. The company, which paid a remarkable $4.2 billion for...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission continued to clear out the backlog of old C-block personal communications services business by finally issuing most of Meretel Communications L.P.'s licenses, save the one property against which a petition to deny was submitted. The commission also assessed a whopping...
NEW YORK-The good news for emerging personal communications services players is that capital is available, and the investment community is bullish on wireless telephony as a general category.The bad news is that the public and private capital markets are accommodating the favorites, so not...
WASHINGTON-For years, wireless resellers have been fighting carriers, regulators and Congress for a little respect.In the future, they may command it.The infusion of spectrum, deregulation and competition is changing marketplace dynamics, making resale an increasingly attractive distribution channel in the new world of one-stop...
WASHINGTON-Antitrust policy is adapting to sweeping pro-competitive, deregulatory telecommunications reforms mandated by Congress, but not abandoning traditional oversight safeguards, one of the nation's top regulators said.The Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission are all shifting their missions, noted...
Tomorrow has always been a bit tricky to forecast. Did John Walter know on his first day at R.R. Donnelley that one day he would be picked to run AT&T Corp?Keeping that in mind, I give you my predictions for RCR's Top 20 PCS...
WASHINGTON-Bidders in the D-, E- and F-block personal communications services auctions appear to be in no hurry to end it. According to analyst Taylor Simmons, even if the Federal Communications Commission ramps up to three rounds per day (which it may do this week),...
WASHINGTON-While it may not be an auctionwide pattern, bidders on the largest basic trading areas (ranked by pop) in the D-, E- and F-block personal communications services auction tend to be the heavy financial hitters, even if some of the prices being offered do...
Editor: Quentin Hardy's article, "Jacobs' Patter," in the Sept. 6 edition of The Wall Street Journal claims that "some of the biggest names in telecommunications" have invested perhaps $20 billion based on my promises about Code Division Multiple Access technology. This might be flattering if...
NEW YORK-LCC International Inc., an independent provider of radio frequency network design for wireless telecommunications, went public Sept. 25 with a 5.25 million share offering of Class A common stock at $16 each.The new issue was increased from the 5 million share initial public...
NextWave Telecom Inc. entered into a definitive agreement to sell Cellexis International Inc. 5 billion minutes of airtime during the next 10 years from its personal communications services network.Tempe, Ariz.-based Cellexis is a prepaid wireless service provider with operations in Washington, D.C., Boston, Phoenix...
WASHINGTON-Any previous bets that the auction of the D-, E- and F-block broadband personal communications services licenses would not garner even $1 billion are off. As of Round 25, net revenues for the three blocks total $980.6 million, and the bidding is nowhere near...
An association that stresses its "technology-neutral" position has formed to give entrepreneurial-block spectrum licensees a platform for unity and fill the gap left by North American Wireless Inc.NAWI is believed to be defunct, although the company's founder, James Valentine, says the organization "is fine.""We...
Sprint Corp., Sprint Spectrum L.P. and RadioShack announced they are teaming up to provide one-stop shopping for all Sprint-branded products.The companies have developed a "store-within-a-store" concept, whereby 15 percent of all RadioShack store floor spaces will be dedicated to Sprint products. Customers will have...
NEW YORK-LCC International Inc., an independent provider of radio frequency network design for wireless telecommunications, said it plans to go public by early autumn.The road show for the 5-million-share initial public offering of Class A common stock was under way last week, and the...
WASHINGTON-Aside from a computer glitch that pushed the auction of D-, E-and F-block broadband personal communications services licenses back to one round per day, bidders now are coping with the intensity of monitoring number and market changes twice a day.At the end of Round...
WASHINGTON-The D-, E- and F-block broadband personal communications services auction not only is the largest competitive bidding venture upon which the Federal Communications Commission has embarked to date, it also has spawned new players, regenerated old hands and created a few strange bedfellows.In this...
WASHINGTON-The first week of the D-, E- and F-block broadband personal communications services auctions moved along without much fanfare, either at the beginning of Round 1 or with the end of Round 4.Spectrum auctions have turned out to be much like the recent political...
MCI Communications Corp. said its recent deal with NextWave Telecom Inc. isn't just another resale agreement."This will involve interconnection, and there is no reseller in the U.S. with interconnection," said Whitey Bluestein, MCI vice president of wireless strategy and development.MCI signed a resale agreement...
After several broken engagements, MCI Communications Corp. thinks it has finally found a partner it can commit to long-term for wireless service, NextWave Telecom Inc.Although MCI has been down this road before, this time I think the company may have done it right.MCI-which sold...
NEW YORK-Omnipoint Corp. raised $250 million in gross proceeds in its sale of 10-year senior notes Thursday to help finance the buildout of its personal communications services network in the New York City area.Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp., New York, lead managed the...
The company had a new phone system installed in the Washington office a week ago, and for days I wondered if it worked. My phone didn't ring, there were no messages in voice mail, I never had two lines going at once. I was...
