Thursday, July 24, 2008

NextWave Wireless Sells Spectrum

San Diego-based NextWave Wireless said today that it is in an agreement to sell a portion of its Advanced Wireless Services (aWS) spectrum, in a deal worth $150.1M. According to the firm, the deal, which is with four unnamed parties, represents 63% of its AWS MHz-pops. After the sale, the firm will still own spectrum in New England, Florida, and California. The firm had acquired the AWS licenses at an FCC auction in 2006 for $115.5M, and recently engaged Deutsche Bank and UBS Investment Bank to sell all of its spectrum in the U.S., and Canaccord Adams to sell all its spectrum in Canada. The FCC created the AWS spectrum in 2003 to accommodate the demand for voice and data spectrum by mobile phone companies, and auctioned the rights to that spectrum in November of 2003. NextWave develops WiMax and RFIC chipsets, telecommunications hardware, and other related products.

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