NextWave Wireless, Inc. (NASD: WAVE) announced that they have retained Deutsche Bank and UBS Investment Bank to further investigate the sale of their extensive spectrum holdings in the United States. Working in major markets of the U.S., such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, and Philadelphia, the company’s distribution covers over 251 million people.
The company hold licenses and lease rights for a total of 4.7 billion MHz/pops of spectrum comprised of 154 Advanced Wireless Service (AWS) licenses in the 1.7/2.1 GHz band, 30 Wireless Communication Service (WCS) licenses in the 2.3 GHz band, and 39 Educational Broadband Service (EBS) and Broadband Radio Service (BRS) licenses, as well as spectrum leases in the 2.5GHz band.
Allen Salmasi, CEO and President of NextWave Wireless, stated, “Since the completion of the recent 700 MHz auction, we have received multiple offers for our U.S. spectrum assets. Given our continued success in developing highly differentiated wireless broadband and multimedia-enabled products, we no longer view our spectrum holdings as critical to reaching our product sales objectives, and believe that now is the perfect time for us to sell these valuable assets while network operators are trying to finalize their band plans and spectrum holdings for their continuing 3G and planned 4G rollouts.”
During the first quarter of 2008, NextWave reported an exciting lineup of new products, including their second-generation WiMAX baseband chip, their comprehensive MXtv mobile TV system, and the LTE roadmap. The company’s subsidiary, PacketVideo, announced their matchbox-sized TellyTM mobile broadcast receiver that can turn any Wi-Fi enabled device into a mobile TV.
“NextWave’s spectrum holdings are highly suitable for mobile operators who need to enhance the coverage, capacity, and performance of their existing 3G and future 4G wireless networks,” commented Edward Dunn, a Managing Director with the Media & Telecom Group at Deutsche Bank. “We view NextWave’s AWS spectrum as highly complementary to other AWS spectrum holders, especially mobile operators who are now in the process of deploying networks in this band. In addition, since many WiMAX and LTE networks are planned to be deployed in the 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz – 2.7 GHz bands globally, we believe that the company’s New York EBS/BRS spectrum represents one of the more valuable markets in the 2.5 GHz band while their extensive WCS footprint should attract interest from both national and regional mobile operators,” he explained.
“We look forward to working with NextWave to maximize the value of their U.S. spectrum assets. The recently concluded 700 MHz band auction once again demonstrated that licensed spectrum remains a highly valuable asset in the United States,” stated Davis Terry, Co-Chairman of Global Telecom at UBS Securities.
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