NextWave Says It Really Plans To Offer Service (No Really)
Forgive us for being skeptical. NextWave has a long history of not doing much, so we’re not quite sure we believe it when they claim they’re really going to do anything at all. You may recall that NextWave spent much more than they could possibly spend on spectrum from the FCC, and then promptly went bankrupt. There was a huge mess where the FCC then took back the spectrum and auctioned it off to others, leading to a huge debate as to whether or not that was allowed since NextWave claimed the spectrum licenses were really assets that, under bankruptcy, couldn’t be taken back. In the end, NextWave did end up with the spectrum, but were told to actually do something with it, instead of just selling it off. They promptly began to sell it off. Now, however, they claim that they really (no, really, really) have plans to actually do something with some of the spectrum, but only in the Northwest, as they’re selling off everything else, and only after they’ve sold off everything else so they’ll actually have the cash. They spin the lack of nationwide spectrum into the buzzwordy “super-regional footprint” that doesn’t mean very much. As with many of NextWave’s claims, it may pay to wait and see before believing that they’ll ever actually offer this service.
