FCC Returns $1.5 Billion To Verizon
Over Disputed Radio Frequencies

Copyright 2002 Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Copyright 2002 The Record
The Record (New Jersey)...04/30/2002
From LexisNexis

By Brendan January
from BroadbandWeek Direct, April 30, 2002

Verizon Wireless Inc. said Monday that the Federal Communications Commission has returned $1.5 billion the company paid in an auction for disputed radio frequencies held by NextWave Telecom Inc.

Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest mobile phone company, bid $8.7 billion in February 2001 for the licenses held by the now bankrupt NextWave.

U.S. mobile-phone carriers bid a total of $15.9 billion to control the licenses, as they sought to boost service quality and introduce new features.

The auction, held by the FCC, was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last June as a violation of bankruptcy law.

In February, Verizon sued the FCC, saying the agency was not complying with the court's order and demanding that the government return the $1.7 billion deposit that the Bedminster company put on the auction. The FCC's action Monday appeared to satisfy some of these complaints.

"The return of $1.5 billion of our deposit is a good start," Denny Strigl, Verizon Wireless president and CEO, said in a statement. "This deposit was handed over in good faith to the FCC more than a year ago and its return, along with the remainder of the deposit that the FCC continues to hold, is long overdue." Verizon will use the refund, representing 85 percent of the deposit, to reduce commercial paper borrowings and debt levels, the company said in a statement.

The FCC said March 27 it will retain a portion of the deposits paid by Verizon Wireless and other mobile-phone carriers as it contests the court decision overturning the results.

Material from Bloomberg News was used in this report.