NextWave and Cingular Wireless reportedly are in talks for latter...

include NextWave’s valuable N.Y.C. spectrum. The deal apparently would allow NextWave to keep a national wireless footprint by offering for sale 10 MHz of the bankrupt carrier’s 30 MHz C-block licenses in more than 30 markets, a source said. In Jan., the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., ruling that reversed the FCC’s cancellation of NextWave’s PCS licenses for nonpayment. NextWave has been expected since that ruling to file another plan of reorganization with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, White Plains, N.Y., and it told the court earlier this year that it was in discussions with 3rd parties on financing and strategic relationships. The potential $1.4 billion price tag would be the latest indication of what NextWave’s spectrum was worth now. A Jan. 2001 re-auction of the NextWave spectrum generated nearly $16 billion from carriers such as Verizon Wireless for licenses for which the carrier originally had bid $4.7 billion. The Commission had returned the licenses to NextWave after the D.C. Appeals Court in June 2001 reversed the agency’s decision to cancel those PCS licenses for nonpayment. Some analysts had estimated earlier this year that the spectrum could be worth close to $6.45 billion based on recent wireless transactions such as the Verizon Wireless-NorthCoast PCS deal. NextWave Deputy Gen. Counsel Michael Wack declined comment and a Cingular spokesman wasn’t available for comment.