Despite months of negotiations between the Federal Communications Commission and several mobile phone operators, Congress may not approve a deal that would allow bankrupt NextWave Telecom to forfeit valuable airwaves.
Several members of Congress have voiced their disapproval of a $15.9 billion deal that gives NextWave's spectrum licenses to telecom companies including Verizon Wireless, $10 billion to the government and the rest of the money back to NextWave.
In a letter dated Monday, Fritz Hollings, the Senate Commerce Committee chairman, blasted the deal as a "windfall" for a bankrupt company and urged his colleagues in Congress to block the sale.
"This private, back-room settlement is fundamentally at odds with telecommunications law and has been presented to us at the 11th hour," he said.
NextWave agreed to pay $4.7 billion for the spectrum licenses in 1996. It paid $500 million, filed for bankruptcy protection and failed to pay the remainder of its balance for the licenses to the FCC.
The FCC rescinded the licenses and re-sold them in an auction that ended in January. However, a federal court ruled the FCC violated bankruptcy laws in repossessing the licenses.
- - -
Ericsson CEO receives death threat: Ericsson CEO Kurt Hellstroem was recently sent an envelope containing a 9mm bullet cartridge and a note made of cut-out letters, reading "Time has come, you will die soon."
Swedish police spokesman Christer Sjoeblom told local newspaper Aftonbladet that Hellstroem received the death threat but was unsure whether the threat was credible.
While the motivation for the letter is unclear, the newspaper speculated the threat was related to Ericsson having cut 22,000 jobs this year. Most recently, the company said it would move or cut 400 researchers in the Dallas area by the end of January after deciding to transfer some research projects to Canada and Europe.
- - -
Two phones, one phone number: In an effort to expand coverage of its next-generation (3G) wireless network, Japan's NTT DoCoMo will soon offer subscribers the option to have the same number for two phones – a second-generation phone and a 3G handset.
The telecom giant is trying to increase the number of 3G subscribers tenfold to 150,000 in the next four months, but coverage remains limited to Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.
- - -
3G costs adding up: AT&T Wireless (AWE) said it plans to spend $1 billion to overhaul its networks to offer 3G services.
The telco has already spent $2.5 billion to offer customers general packet radio service (GPRS), an always-on, high-speed Internet network.
- - -
Dialing around: Handheld maker Palm (PALM) chopped $50 off the price of its m125 handheld.... Handspring (HAND) reduced the price tag of its Visor Edge PDA by $50, to $249.
