Cingular To Wed Nextwave – Bigfoot To Perform Services
Thanks should go out to Nextwave, Cingular, and Hill & Knowlton (Nextwave’s PR agency) for providing tabloid-grade filler news in the slow month of August. They have bumbled their way through the story of Cingular’s purchase of Nextwave’s spectrum first leaking it to rumors that we mentioned here. Then, we reported the deal was publicly announced. Then we told our loyal readers how Cingular denied the deal, saying they had not authorized the press release. We speculated that the deal actually was in the works, and sure enough the deal is back on. Stay tuned, next week Nextwave will have Cingular’s alien love child. We’d be ashamed to be a part of this news fiasco if we weren’t making fun of it!) Here’s a small piece of useful information to try to make up for the nonsense: Cingular is spectrum-strapped in the markets they operate. While a few carriers, like Sprint PCS, have excess capacity, Cingular is challenged to support their existing customers without getting more bandwidth. This explains why Sprint PCS is leasing out capacity to MVNOs for extra revenue, while Cingular is chasing expensive spectrum from Nextwave. Update: Mike has suggested I camp out by the Hill & Knowlton offices to see if I can pick up on any more such “clerical errors” as they fly out the window for rumor-mongering.
