http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030925/1559001066_2.html

Court Approves Sale of 34 NextWave Licenses to Cingular
Thursday September 25, 3:59 pm ET
By Marc Hopkins, Of Dow Jones Newswires

WASHINGTON -- With no competing offers raising the sale price, the
bankruptcy court handling the NextWave Telecom Inc. case awarded wireless
licenses to bidder Cingular Wireless LLC for $1.4 billion in cash.
The decision by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., strengthens
Cingular Wireless coverage in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston,
Chicago and Washington.

The deal has been brewing for weeks with Cingular, which became the
anticipated purchaser after other parties missed a Sept. 15 deadline to make
competing bids for the 34 licenses up for auction. Cingular is a joint
venture between BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS - News) and SBC Communications
Inc. (NYSE:SBC - News) .

Under bankruptcy laws, companies trying to sell assets while operating under
Chapter 11 protection must submit to an auction even when there is a buyer
available for the property. The auction assures creditors the best offer is
obtained to provide the greatest recovery for debts.

NextWave has been under Chapter 11 protection since 1998. The company won a
long court battle earlier this year to keep its wireless licenses and worked
out an agreement with the Federal Communications Commission (News -
Websites) to develop an approach that would allow the proposed sale to
proceed -- subject to regulatory approval -- while the company and the
agency continue to workout their differences.

A term sheet that NextWave negotiated with the FCC entitles the agency to
receive at least $714 million directly from Cingular on account of its
claims against NextWave related to the 34 licenses.

The term sheet provides that NextWave and the FCC would grant releases to
each other from claims related to the licenses, and the agency also would
receive third-party releases from all other creditors and equity holders in
the Chapter 11 case in connection to claims and lawsuits related to the
licenses.

-By Marc Hopkins; Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-1362;
marc.hopkins@dowjones.com