Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Verizon Wireless May Bid for Assets to Carry East Coast Calls

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 04:50:14 -0500

Verizon Wireless May Bid for Assets to Carry East Coast Calls
 http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?T=marketsquote99_news.ht&s=APbqchhXFVmVyaXpv

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Verizon Wireless May Bid for Assets to Carry East Coast Calls
By Tom Giles

Bedminster, New Jersey, Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Verizon
Wireless Inc. may try to purchase mobile-phone licenses that would
enable the largest U.S. carrier to transmit more calls on the East
Coast, Chief Executive Officer Dennis Strigl said.

Wireless companies need licenses issued by the government to
carry calls over specific frequencies. In the coming years,
Bedminster, New Jersey-based Verizon Wireless will require
additional airwaves in New York, the largest U.S. market, Boston
and other parts of the U.S. northeast to sell a wider range of
services to a growing customer base, Strigl said in an interview.

Cablevision Systems Corp., New York's largest cable-
television operator, has said it may sell wireless licenses in
markets including New York and Boston to help cover a cash
shortfall. Verizon Wireless also could plug spectrum gaps by
buying assets from bankrupt NextWave Telecom Inc., Strigl said.

``I'm not ruling out interest in anybody in our eventually
spectrum-deprived markets,'' Strigl said. Asked whether he may try
to buy Cablevision's licenses, he replied, ``things will shake out
over time.''

Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Jessica Reif Cohen earlier this
year valued Bethpage, New York-based Cablevision's licenses at
about $1.2 billion.

NextWave Case

``Cablevision has made no secret that it is exploring the
divestiture of the wireless licenses and that exploration is
proceeding,'' Cablevision spokesman Charles Schueler said. He
declined to comment specifically on Verizon Wireless.

Cablevision holds the licenses through Northcoast
Communications, a private company that's 49.9 percent-owned by
Cablevision. Northcoast began offering wireless services in
Cleveland last year and doesn't sell them in New York or Boston.

The U.S. Supreme Court currently is deliberating whether to
let NextWave keep airwaves valued at as much as $12 billion. The
Hawthorne, New York-based company bid $4.7 billion for the
licenses in a 1996 auction, then missed the payment deadlines and
filed for bankrupcty protection.

NextWave CEO Allen Salmasi and NextWave spokesman Michael
Wack didn't return phone calls seeking comment.

Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications
Inc. and Britain's Vodafone Group Plc, yesterday said it added
803,000 subscribers in the third quarter. Its total, including
customers from an acquisition, increased to 31.5 million.

``Verizon is likely taking share from other nationwide
carriers,'' Credit Suisse First Boston analyst Dan Reingold said
in a research note. Reingold was expecting the company to add
500,000 new users.

Cingular Wireless, the second-largest U.S. mobile-phone
company, lost 107,000 subscribers, and Sprint Corp.'s PCS
division, the No. 4 U.S. wireless operator, lost 78,000 customers
in the three months ended Sept. 30.

Operating income at Verizon Wireless rose 41 percent to $970
million as sales increased 10 percent to $5 billion. The average
monthly bill rose to $49.57 from $49.39 a year earlier. Churn, or
the average monthly rate at which customers disconnect, rose to
2.3 percent from 2.2 percent a year earlier.

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