SAN DIEGO—Leap Wireless International announced it signed an agreement to buy 13 spectrum licenses from bankrupt Urban Comm-North Carolina Inc. for $31.8 million in cash.
The licenses cover about 4.9 million customers in North Carolina and South Carolina, including 10 MHz of spectrum in eight North Carolina markets, including Burlington, Raleigh-Durham and Roanoke Rapids; and 10 MHz in the South Carolina markets of Florence, Myrtle Beach, Orangeburg, Sumter and Charleston.
“Raleigh and the related markets support the market clustering initiatives we have identified as instrumental to our business strategy and future growth in the Southeast,” said Doug Hutcheson, Leap’s president and chief executive officer. “These additional markets will give our customers who travel in and around the Carolinas more value from their Cricket and Jump Mobile services.”
Urban Comm’s spectrum has been parceled out over the past couple of years after the operator declared bankruptcy in 1998. Urban Comm’s story largely follows that of Nextwave Telecom Inc., which also acquired spectrum shortly before filing for bankruptcy.
Verizon Wireless bought 10 spectrum licenses of 10-, 20-, and 30-MHz in the 1.9 GHz band from Urban-Comm for $68.5 million last year. SunCom Wireless Holding Inc., formerly Triton PCS Holdings Inc., had planned a $113 million acquisition of Urban Comm and its 1.9 GHz licenses in the Carolinas and Virginia, but announced last August that it was canceling the deal because several of Urban Comm’s licenses were in markets that SunCom no longer considered part of its operational focus.
Leap is scheduled to announce its fourth-quarter and year-end 2005 results on Wednesday. Leap said last week that it needed to restate the final five months of 2004 after it emerged from bankruptcy protection and the first nine months of 2005. The company expects that the adjustments will decrease its income tax expenses and boost its net income. The operator, which focuses on offering prepaid and inexpensive unlimited calling plans in the markets where it operates, recently launched service in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Fresno, Calif.
