Nextel's secret weapon

Mar 01 2005 - 04:38 PM ET | Nextel

Scott Woolley, writing for Forbes, has an interesting piece on Nextel's spectrum purchases over the last few years. bq. Last year, Nextel quietly snapped up wireless cable licenses for almost half the big cities in the U.S. for $214 million, mostly as part of WorldCom's bankruptcy fire sale... Nextel successfully lobbied the FCC to greatly loosen the restrictions on the wireless cable spectrum. In fact, the commission officially renamed the airwaves "broadband radio service" spectrum and began encouraging their use for wireless data networks. Woolley asserts that Sprint (also a major wireless cable license holder) will be in a great position for wireless data after its merger with Nextel is finished.

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