Taking a cue from its Qualcomm roots, NextWave Wireless is looking to build a wireless broadband network based on technology it calls WiMAXplus, a proprietary flavor of WiMAX. If successful, the network may only work with chips that contain proprietary NextWave technology, says the San Diego Examiner.

NextWave was founded by Allen Salmasi, who joined Qualcomm in 1988 and led the OmniTRACs division (satellite tracking of trucks) that provided the cash to keep the Q in business while it proved that its CDMA would work for mobile communications. Salmasi left Qualcomm in 1994, but failed in an effort to build a national CDMA network. He did, after lengthy court battles, profit from the spectrum he had locked up in government auctions. Verizon paid the company $2.6 billion last year for the spectrum, with the proceeds distributed to investors, including Salmasi. From the proceeds he built his new company which owns the spectrum that WiMAXplus would operate on.

Based in San Diego, NextWave Wireless’ local connections run strong. Last summer it bought one of San Diego’s home-grown digital darlings, PacketVideo, a firm that leads the industry in figuring out how to get video transmissions down to a manageable size for viewing on a mobile device.

PacketVideo, based in San Diego, is utilized by Verizon’s V-Cast service and other streaming cellular services. Embedded with NextWave software, mobile phones will be able to take digital pictures, record home movies, play back digital music and videos, and make two-way videophone calls, says NextWave.

AWS Wireless, a wholly owned subsidiary of NextWave Wireless, was granted AWS spectrum (at 1.7/2.1 GHz) in the recent FCC auction. Combined with the company’s existing 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz spectrum assets, the newly granted AWS licenses provide NextWave with a national spectrum footprint that covers approximately 247 million people in the U.S.

Through its Network Solutions Group (NSG), NextWave Broadband intends to partner with service providers to build and operate WiMAX networks that utilize the company’s licensed spectrum assets and incorporate the company’s mobile broadband technologies, according to its web site. Qualcomm has an investment in NextWave Telecom, reports Caroline Gabriel, and has chipsets for the AWS band. In 2001 Qualcomm injected $300m into the carrier, while it was in bankruptcy protection (from the original PCS spectrum bid). It came out of that just fine — selling their (in dispute) PCS spectrum to Verizon for $2.7 Billion.

The AWS licenses, acquired by NextWave, cover 63 million people and include markets such as Pittsburgh, Puerto Rico, Indianapolis, Sacramento, New Orleans, Tulsa, Little Rock, El Paso, Albany, Louisville, Sarasota, Anchorage, and Fort Myers. During the auction NextWave bid a total of $115.5 million for the 154 AWS licenses at an average price of $0.12 per MHz-POP.

SpectrumCo is Sprint’s joint venture with the major cable companies, (including Comcast, Time Warner, and Cox), and could be a NextWave competitor.

SpectrumCo picked up 20 MHz licenses in the B block covering most of the populated areas of the continental US, plus an odd extra 10 MHz in Houston. They also went after Hawaii, although Verizon out-bid them for the B block, so they picked up the C and D blocks there instead.

With the exception of Hawaii, it’s an advantage that all of SpectrumCo’s AWS spectrum is in one block. It could make it easier for hardware manufacturers to create radios and antennas for just that one very specific frequency band.

The FCC’s Advanced Wireless Services auction and AWS service areas (pdf), will primarily be used for 3G (W-CDMA) phone services, since the FCC packaged the band into duplex frequencies (as per cellular preference).

T-Mobile was the high bidder on 120 licenses, covering markets in the continental U.S., Hawaii, the U.S. Caribbean and Alaska while Verizon Wireless, the No. 2 player in the nation, pledged $2.8 billion for 13 licenses and No. 1 carrier Cingular — co-owned by AT&T and BellSouth — bid $1.3 billion for 48 licenses.

SpectrumCo, the Sprint/Cable group, agreed to pay $2.4 billion for 137 licenses in cities including New York, Boston, Washington, Detroit and Atlanta.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Thursday, December 28th, 2006 at 11:17 am.