NextWave told the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, White Plains, N.Y., it h...

spectrum. Last fall, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile pursued separate claims against NextWave on allegations of outstanding relocation costs. Sprint told the court in Aug. that NextWave owed it $4.87 million to compensate for part of the costs of relocating certain microwave incumbents. The FCC adopted rules in 1996 on relocation of fixed microwave licensees that had to be cleared to make way for new PCS licensees. The agency required that new licensees pay for the cost of moving microwave incumbents to other frequencies, mandating that all PCS companies that benefited from spectrum clearance by other PCS licensees still had to chip in for relocation costs. Earlier this month, Sprint PCS filed a brief at the court, increasing the amount of its claim to $6.44 million to reflect invoices it had submitted to NextWave for additional cost-sharing reimbursement obligations not covered in earlier filings. Under the new agreement submitted to the court for approval Tues., Sprint PCS would be allowed an administrative claim of $3.2 million to be paid in cash when NextWave’s reorganization plan took effect. NextWave debtors would assign to Sprint all their interest in reimbursement rights for which they were entitled to receive payment under FCC rules for specific links. NextWave and Sprint would agree to release each other from claims related to any microwave relocation obligations associated with build-out activities that occurred before the reorganization plan took effect. A hearing on the motion on the compromise agreement is set for Feb. 4 before Bankruptcy Judge Adlai Hardin. In a separate claim, T-Mobile USA had argued that NextWave owed it $4.1 million for relocation of microwave incumbents related to PCS spectrum clearing. T-Mobile has sought administrative claim status before the bankruptcy court and immediate payment of funds. A hearing is set before Hardin on that matter Jan. 24. NextWave this week submitted a filing to the court in opposition to T-Mobile’s request. NextWave said T-Mobile’s invoices for payment showed that the “vast majority of the relocations” were done before NextWave had filed for Chapter 11 and were a requirement of T-Mobile’s expanding its own operations. NextWave said it opposed T-Mobile’s requests because: (1) It hadn’t complied with the FCC’s cost-sharing rules it was asking the court to enforce against NextWave. “FCC orders and rules establish that payments are not owed until a company begins commercial operations, which debtor [NextWave] has not yet done.” (2) The cost recovery, even if T-Mobile were entitled to some reimbursement, shouldn’t be done under administrative priority under federal bankruptcy law.