CRAIG McCAW TO EXPLAIN INVESTMENTS IN ITFS
The high-profile investment of wireless pioneer Craig McCaw in ITFS spectrum has raised the stakes as the FCC considers a proposal to revise the rules for ITFS/MDS spectrum. McCaw is expected to have more to say about his plans and the business he’s building in a speech Wed. at the Wireless Communications Assn. meeting in Washington. McCaw met with FCC Chmn. Powell in April to talk about his views on ITFS. He’s viewed as being a force behind a pending FCC proposal to take 6 MHz from ITFS, combine it with another 6 MHz, and offer the spectrum for sale through auction for advanced services.
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A source close to McCaw said he will lay out his vision -- but not many details about why he has bought ITFS spectrum rights or his plans for future buys. “We're going to come out at WCA. We haven’t really been talking,” the source said: “We are excited about what we're doing. Craig has a good feel for things. We've got some ideas that are different than what other people are doing.” The source said McCaw is promoting a change in the rules for ITFS: “This is the worst spectrum. Nobody has been able to do anything with it because the rules have been so bad for everybody.”
Other major industry players are also pursuing rule changes for ITFS. Sprint, which has a long-standing investment in the spectrum, hopes to use it for a wireless broadband network. Nextel bought MCI’s spectrum in the band. But partly because of his status as a telecom celebrity, McCaw’s activity has led to several news stories in major publications, including a profile in Business Week on McCaw’s “secret plan.” “He has cache,” said a source in the ITFS sector. “That guy made billions of dollars on the cellphone business. He’s out there. He has money and he’s apparently willing to spend it. There’s some question if McCaw is behind an effort to get these 2 new channels.”
McCaw built a cellular network that he sold to AT&T for $11.5 billion 10 years ago. In March, he bought Tex.-based Clearwire Holdings, which operates a wireless broadband service in Jacksonville, Fla. The company owns the rights to spectrum in 100 or so markets and is negotiating for rights in others. In May, he disclosed a $36 million investment in Montreal-based Microcell Telecommunications, a cellular company with plans to offer broadband wireless across Canada.
In a May 18 filing at the FCC, Clearwire said the company was buying ITFS/MDS spectrum “to launch a new wireless service that provides broadband voice and data to residential customers in both urban and rural areas as a low cost alternative to the broadband access provided by incumbents.” The filing said the company was “purchasing licenses outright or by negotiating excess capacity leases.”