NextWave Sells $150M Of AWS Spectrum

July 28, 2008

NextWave Wireless has signed agreements with four parties to sell a portion of its AWS license portfolio, representing 63% of its total AWS MHz-pops, for a total of $150.1 million.

Buyers include T-Mobile USA, MetroPCS, ACS Wireless, and Atlantic Wireless. NextWave originally acquired all of its AWS licenses for about $115 million at the FCC auction in 2006.

Subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission, the agreements call for NextWave to sell 599 million MHz-pops of AWS spectrum at an average price of $0.25 per MHz-pop. The company's cost basis in the licenses being sold is $75.2 million or $0.126 cents per MHz-pop. Pursuant to the terms of NextWave's 7% Senior Secured Notes ("Notes"), $75 million of the proceeds from the sale will be deposited into a restricted cash collateral account and $75 million will be used to redeem a portion of the Notes. After the sale, the company will possess 348 million MHz-pops of AWS spectrum primarily in New England, Florida and California. NextWave acquired all of its AWS licenses for a total of $115.5 million, or $0.12 per MHz-pop, at an FCC auction held in 2006.

"The sale of our AWS spectrum is just the first step in maximizing the value of our spectrum portfolio," said Allen Salmasi, chief executive officer and president of NextWave Wireless. "We will continue to monetize our remaining spectrum assets in the U.S. and are working with Deutsche Bank and UBS Investment Bank to achieve our spectrum sale objectives."

NextWave's remaining U.S. spectrum assets include 2.8 billion MHz-pops of 2.3 GHz WCS spectrum, 972 million MHz-pops of 2.5 GHz BRS/EBS spectrum, and 348 million MHz pops of AWS spectrum. In addition the company has 5.9 billion MHz-pops of spectrum in Europe, Canada, and South America.