WASHINGTON-The Senate Commerce Committee Thursday passed by voice vote a bill meant to keep the NextWave Telecom Inc. bankruptcy saga from happening again. NextWave filed for bankruptcy in 1998 after not being able to secure financing to pay the Federal Communications Commission back for its bid of $4.7 billion for 95 PCS C-block licenses. That action led to a nearly five-year saga about whether the FCC could cancel NextWave licenses during bankruptcy.
In January, the Supreme Court ruled the FCC couldn’t.
The bill passed Thursday would take the bankruptcy option away from bidders for spectrum licenses. The legislation was included in the FCC reauthorization bill, which now goes to the Senate floor for consideration.
