Howard Buskirk

Nextel said Thurs. it expects to spend $900 million in 2005 as it begins to implement the 800 MHz rebanding plan, approved by the FCC last year, which will eat up much of the company’s projected $2 billion free cash flow. About $600 million will be spent on new capacity sites, filters and working with public safety radio systems and $300 million to relocate broadcast auxiliary users and microwave incumbents from 1.9 GHz to 2.1 GHz, Nextel officials said on a call with analysts discussing 4th- quarter results.

In his first analyst call since Qwest’s failed attempt to acquire MCI over rival Verizon, CEO Richard Notebaert said Tues. his company remains on the look-out for other opportunities and hasn’t closed the door on taking another run at MCI. Notebaert also told analysts that after 3 years of revenue declines, Qwest has the “opportunity” to up revenue in 2005.

Auction 58, which has officially ended after almost 3 weeks, raised $2.043 billion, substantially less than the $3 billion to $4 billion estimated by analysts, and only a fraction of the $16.8 billion bid in auction 35, the original attempt to sell NextWave’s former licenses in late 2000-early 2001. Gross bids before subtraction of bidding credits stood at $2.254 billion. The auction ended after 91 rounds of bidding.

Verizon will buy MCI for more than $8.9 billion, the companies said Mon., including assumed debt, giving Verizon MCI’s IP-based system and marketing teams around the world, as well as its govt. contracts business. The deal will help Verizon move most of its calls to MCI’s IP- network, which company officials said will result in substantial cost savings. Verizon officials told analysts they don’t expect to have to divest any assets to win approval from the FCC and the Dept. of Justice.

The Bells lined up against competitors on a Verizon petition seeking forbearance from Title II and Computer Inquiry rules as they apply to broadband service. The Bells said the broadband marketplace is highly competitive and the regulatory structures they face give cable providers in particular an unfair advantage. Competitors argued that Verizon wants to destroy competition. The 2 sides recently faced off in a similar battle over a BellSouth forbearance petition also before the Commission.

A “leaner, more robust and more agile” Sprint will see continued single-digit revenue growth in 2005 -- with double-digit growth in wireless making up for double-digit losses in its long-distance unit and downward pressure on its local service -- Sprint’s top officials said Thurs. during the company’s annual investor conference in N.Y.

The FCC’s Wireless Broadband Access Task Force advised the FCC to raise the transmission power limits for wireless data providers in rural areas of the U.S. as part of a set of preliminary recommendations following a nearly year-long investigation. The group, formed last May, also said Thurs. that future FCC regulation should be based on a “pro-competitive, innovative” framework with limited barriers at the federal and state levels. It said the FCC should consider classifying wireless broadband as an “information service” and examining whether it constitutes an interstate service not subject to significant state regulation.

The Dept. of Defense remains fully committed to full rollout of radio frequency identification (RFID) for the entire supply chain by 2007, Maj. Gen. Daniel Mongeon, dir.-logistics operations for the Defense Logistics Agency, told several hundred attendees Wed. at DoD’s RFID Summit for Industry.

Aloha Partners announced Wed. a potentially significant consolidation in the still-to-develop 700 MHz broadband wireless market, buying 2 of its top competitors, Cavalier Group and DataCom Wireless. The closely held company was already the nation’s largest holder of 700 MHz spectrum, while the others were #2 and #3, respectively. With the mergers, Aloha said it will own spectrum in 244 licensed markets covering 175 million POPs.

The Tower Siting Policy Alliance (TSPA), representing a group of wireless carriers and tower companies, filed a petition for reconsideration on the FCC’s National Programmatic Agreement (NPA) on tower siting, saying some provisions undermine the intent of streamlining the approval process. The alliance zeroes in on requirements for what it argues are overly burdensome archeological field surveys and overly permissive tribal exemptions from exclusions. The members were active proponents of concluding work on the NPA.