Exhibit 99.1
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[NextWave Wireless Inc. Logo]
Press Release
NextWave Wireless Retains Deutsche Bank and UBS to Explore the Sale of Its
Wireless Spectrum Holdings in the U.S.
Company's AWS, WCS, and EBS/BRS Licenses Cover
Over 251 Million People in the U.S.
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 23, 2008--NextWave Wireless Inc. (NASDAQ:
WAVE), a global provider of advanced mobile multimedia and wireless broadband
technologies, announced that it has retained Deutsche Bank and UBS Investment
Bank to explore the sale of its extensive spectrum holdings in the United
States. NextWave's U.S. spectrum footprint covers over 251 million people, or
pops, in the United States and includes major markets such as New York, Los
Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Denver, Houston, and
Detroit. The company's holdings include licenses and lease rights for a total of
4.7 billion MHz/pops of spectrum comprised of 154 Advanced Wireless Service
("AWS") licenses in the 1.7/2.1 GHz band, 30 Wireless Communication Service
("WCS") licenses in the 2.3 GHz band, and 39 Educational Broadband Service
("EBS") and Broadband Radio Service ("BRS") licenses and spectrum leases in the
2.5 GHz band.
"Since the completion of the recent 700 MHz auction, we have received multiple
offers for our U.S. spectrum assets. Given our continued success in developing
highly differentiated wireless broadband and multimedia-enabled products, we no
longer view our spectrum holdings as critical to reaching our product sales
objectives, and believe that now is the perfect time for us to sell these
valuable assets while network operators are trying to finalize their band plans
and spectrum holdings for their continuing 3G and planned 4G rollouts," said
Allen Salmasi, chief executive officer and president of NextWave Wireless.
"Monetizing the value of our substantial spectrum assets would allow us to
further strengthen our balance sheet, retire debt, and continue the commercial
introduction of a wide range of innovative wireless broadband and multimedia
solutions such as our high-performance WiMAX and RFIC chipsets, advanced
multi-mode, multi-band TD-CDMA, WiMAX and LTE enabled base station platforms,
breakthrough MXtv(TM) and TDtv(TM) mobile television systems, highly advanced
mobile multimedia software solutions and platforms that we are now bringing into
commercial deployments globally with many of the largest mobile operators and
device manufactures in the world."
Summary details of NextWave's U.S. spectrum licensed portfolio are contained in
the table below.
AWS WCS EBS/BRS Total
Frequency Band 1.7 GHz / 2.1 GHz 2.3 GHz 2.5 GHz
Licensed Pops (millions) 62.2 209.8 34.4 251.0
MHz-Pops (millions) 946.8 2,807.2 972.3 4,726.3
Number of Licenses 154 30 22 206
Number of Leases 0 0 17 17
"NextWave's spectrum holdings are highly suitable for mobile operators who need
to enhance the coverage, capacity, and performance of their existing 3G and
future 4G wireless networks," said Edward Dunn, a Managing Director with the
Media & Telecom Group at Deutsche Bank. "We view NextWave's AWS spectrum as
highly complementary to other AWS spectrum holders, especially mobile operators
who are now in the process of deploying networks in this band. In addition,
since many WiMAX and LTE networks are planned to be deployed in the 2.3 GHz and
2.5 GHz - 2.7 GHz bands globally, we believe that the company's New York EBS/BRS
spectrum represents one of the more valuable markets in the 2.5 GHz band while
their extensive WCS footprint should attract interest from both national and
regional mobile operators."
"We look forward to working with NextWave to maximize the value of their U.S.
spectrum assets. The recently concluded 700 MHz band auction once again
demonstrated that licensed spectrum remains a highly valuable asset in the
United States," said Davis Terry, Co-Chairman of Global Telecom at UBS
Securities. "We believe that NextWave's North American spectrum holdings
represent an asset that will be highly complementary with the current or planned
spectrum holdings of a number of mobile operators and new entrants who are
planning to extend their 3G coverage or acquire spectrum for their 4G
roll-outs."
Various 3G and 4G networks have already been deployed in the AWS, WCS and
EBS/BRS bands globally. These initial 4G networks have generally been
implemented in a single frequency band. To provide for sufficient spectrum depth
to handle bandwidth-intensive 4G applications the company believes that
operators may need to combine multiple frequency bands. For this reason,
NextWave has developed and demonstrated an advanced RFIC that enables the
implementation of any combination of AWS, WCS, and EBS/BRS bands in end-user
devices that support device implementations for TDD and/or FDD operations based
on IEEE 802.16e (WiMAX), 3GPP Release 7 (UMTS) and 3GPP Release 8 (LTE). Another
RFIC from NextWave, with expected availability in 2008, has been designed to
support a combination of bands from 700 MHz to 3.8 GHz.
In the first quarter of 2008, NextWave announced an exciting lineup of important
new products including its second-generation WiMAX baseband chip and matched
RFIC, its breakthrough MXtv mobile TV system which provides WiMAX operators the
ability to deliver up to 45 high-quality broadcast channels in 10 MHz of
spectrum using their existing WiMAX spectrum and radio access network, and its
LTE roadmap which includes an LTE-enabled version of its advanced V5 base
station. NextWave also announced that T-Mobile and Orange will launch a
commercial pilot of its advanced TDtv mobile television system in London later
this year. Also during the first quarter, NextWave's PacketVideo subsidiary
announced its match-box sized Telly(TM) mobile broadcast receiver that can turn
any Wi-Fi enabled device into a mobile TV.
There is no assurance that the sale of any NextWave licenses will occur, and any
such sales will be subject to final approval by the Federal Communications
Commission.
About NextWave Wireless
NextWave Wireless Inc. (Nasdaq: WAVE) is engineering the future of mobility by
providing next-generation mobile multimedia and wireless broadband technologies
to the world's leading mobile handset manufacturers, consumer electronics
manufacturers and wireless service providers. From mobile television and mobile
broadband systems to semiconductors and device-embedded mobile multimedia
software that can be found in more than 220 million handsets around the globe,
NextWave is evolving the way consumers experience mobile multimedia content. For
more information visit NextWave at www.nextwave.com.
Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" for purposes of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks and
uncertainties. There can be no assurances that forward-looking statements will
be achieved, and actual events or results could differ materially from the
events or results predicted by such statements. Important factors that could
cause actual events or results to differ materially are discussed in greater
detail in the filings of NextWave with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
All such documents are available through the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.
NextWave makes no commitment to update any forward-looking statements in order
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to reflect subsequent changes in events or circumstances except as may be
required pursuant to applicable law.
CONTACT: NextWave Wireless Media Relations:
Ruder Finn
Chris Fallon, 917-974-1667
fallonc@RuderFinn.com
or
NextWave Wireless
Suzanne McCormac, + 1 (415) 577-9135
smccormac@nextwave.com
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