Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel seen having to pay for new airwaves

From: "Rik Rasmussen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 20:11:54 -0500

Nextel seen having to pay for new airwaves-sources
Reuters, 03.09.04, 7:49 PM ET

By Jeremy Pelofsky

WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) - Nextel Communications Inc. (nasdaq: NXTL -
news - people) will likely have to pay more for airwaves it wants in a
spectrum swap aimed at resolving interference with emergency service users,
officials close to the matter said on Tuesday.

The Federal Communications Commission has developed a plan to let Nextel
move operations to the 1.9 gigahertz band from three lower bands while
paying $850 million to reorganize the 800 megahertz band and upgrade public
safety communications, they said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Nextel would have to pay the overall difference between the valuation of the
airwaves swapped, the costs incurred for moving its operations and to
reorganize the 800 Mhz band, the officials said.

"The idea is to avoid an excessive windfall," one official said. "This is an
FCC-driven plan that takes the best" of all the proposals.

At this stage, the source said that FCC staff has rejected a request by
Verizon Wireless to auction the 1.9 Ghz airwaves. The rival carrier has
argued that Nextel would receive a multi-billion dollar windfall without an
auction being held.

Nextel has argued that its obligations to resolving the interference problem
would exceed the value of the spectrum it would receive by $2 billion.
Verizon Wireless has countered that the spectrum Nextel would receive is
worth $5.3 billion.

The officials declined to say which valuation they would use but indicated
it would likely be in a range between the two extremes. Analysts at Legg
Mason, which owns Nextel stock, estimated in January that Nextel would see a
net incremental value of spectrum of about $2.8 billion.

The proposal has just started circulating among the five FCC commissioners
so a decision is likely several weeks away.

The sources stressed that this was the "beginning of the debate," and that
it could change once the commissioners review it and spectrum value is
determined.

U.S. public safety officials, some of whom have backed the Nextel plan, have
pressured the Bush administration to step up efforts to resolve interference
with their critical wireless communications systems.

While the plan would take time to implement, the sources said the FCC would
attempt to determine when there was an interference problem but let the
parties resolve it.

Representatives for the FCC commissioners as well as the FCC staff declined
to comment.

A Nextel spokeswoman welcomed the move forward by the commission but had not
seen the actual proposal.

"We're glad to see there's forward motion, this proposal was put forth more
than two years ago and interference issue only increases day by day," said
Nextel spokeswoman Audrey Schaefer.

A representative for Verizon Wireless said it was still early in the process
and that its proposal didn't unfairly benefit one company.

"We are confident that our proposal accomplishes the same thing that the
Nextel proposal does for public safety with the added benefit of a known
pool of funding for law enforcement to improve its wireless communications,"
said Verizon spokesman Jeffrey Nelson.

Copyright 2004, Reuters News Service

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From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 2004 20:38:23 -0500

IF the situation below is true this looks like a deal breaker given Larry's
past comments,
But then again we all know how Nextel sticks to its statements...(NOT).

 Larry's comments...............

"Mr. (Larry)  Krevor indicated that Nextel would withdraw its pledge to pay $850
million to relocate public safety and private wireless incumbents in the 800 MHz
band if the FCC refused to grant it 10 MHz in the 1.9 gigahertz band in exchange
for other spectrum it would return. "We've been very clear that without the
replacement spectrum at 1.9, we don't propose to fund the realignment," he said.
"We believe that the 10 MHz is a fair and equitable replacement for what we give
up."

 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEXTEL-1/message/16370

 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WFHSG/message/5522

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/800interference/message/2410

> officials close to the matter said on Tuesday.

<SNIP>

---

From: "Paul Holliday" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 09:03:13 -0500

If Nexhell relocates to the 1.9 gigahertz band why do we need the " $850
million to reorganize the 800 megahertz band & upgrade public safety"? want
the problem be gone?
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rik Rasmussen" <[email-masked]>
To: "Nextel-1" <[email-masked]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 8:11 PM
Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel seen having to pay for new airwaves

 
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