How do you spell irony? N-E-X-T-W-A-V-E

By
Andrew
on April 27, 2008 12:47 PM | | Comments (2231) | TrackBacks (0)


As Alex reported in the Weekly Mobile News Roundup, NextWave Wireless, Inc. (yes, THAT NextWave) is planning on selling off their 2.5GHz PCS spectrum licenses.


Excuse me while I take the next 10 minutes to roll on the ground laughing hysterically.

OK, I'm back now.

For those of you who don't know, NextWave is the company that won a bunch of 2.5GHz PCS licenses back in the 1990s after the 1996 Telecommunications Act required the FCC to auction off that spectrum for advanced digital wireless services...sort of like what Europe had been using for years. 

So, NextWave won a bunch of licenses, and had to build out their network. Only, the FCC needed them to pay up. But, they couldn't do both. So, the FCC let them make installment payments on the licenses, making the FCC a de facto lender. When they couldn't pay the FCC (because they were trying to build out their network, otherwise they'd lose their licenses,) they filed for bankruptcy to protect their licenses, since the FCC, was, in effect a creditor. 

Meanwhile, the FCC tried to re-auction the NextWave disputed licenses, which created an entire new set of problems for the agency (one which they fixed in the 700MHz auctions that were just completed).

To make a long story short, the Courts agreed with NextWave, but the FCC continued to battle for years and years, with each decision they had to make in any license transfer proceeding dictated by how it fit with their position in the NextWave litigation. Eventually, the FCC kept appealing until the Supreme Court told it that NextWave could keep the licenses, many of which ended up in the hands of what are now AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile anyway.

So, the circle is complete. The 700MHz auction is completed, with open access and (hopefully) none of the idiotic litigation that followed the last round of auctions, and NextWave is selling off their spectrum, because well, it just isn't that important anymore, and they make lots of Wi-Max hardware now.

For a fantastic take on the NextWave saga and why it was so ridiculous, read former FCC Commissioner (and economist) Harold Furchtgott-Roth's book (I should carry a copy with me everywhere I go) . It's called "A Tough Act to Follow?" and while it doesn't have the Beatles-referencing title of former Chairman Reed Hundt's "You Say You Want Revolution" it is a wonderful history of how the FCC can do something so horribly wrong, even with the best of intentions. Actually, you should read both their books, but Mr. Furchtgott-Roth's has much more about NextWave and is smaller. Plus, out of the two, he's the only one I've met and he's actually a pretty nice guy. Actually, all of the FCC Commissioners I've met are pretty affable people, and that includes three of the five current ones and two former. 

It's a shame that such friendly people get such a bad reputation. 

(Hey! FCC Commissioners! I'll plug YOUR books too! I actually read this stuff!)

wow, I'm boring.

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