Verizon Changes Plan on NextWave Licenses

Verizon Wireless Inc., the biggest U.S. mobile-phone company, will ask a U.S. court as early as today to invalidate a sale of NextWave Telecom Inc.’s airwave licenses and force the government to return a $1.7-billion down payment, a person familiar with the plan said.

The petition is a reversal for Verizon Wireless, which had tried for seven months to salvage the auction results and get the licenses. The carrier is losing $250,000 a day in interest on the deposit it paid on $8.8 billion in bids, the person said. Canceling the sale would erase the debt.

The carrier is acting because the Federal Communications Commission has declined to refund the down payment as the company requested. Verizon and the other auction winners paid the money a year ago, before an appeals court in June upended the sale and returned the frequencies to NextWave.

Brian Marriott, a spokesman for the FCC, and NextWave Deputy General Counsel Michael Wack declined to comment. A Verizon Wireless spokesman wouldn’t comment.