NEWS BRIEFS

– MCI marked a fresh start as it emerged April 20 from the biggest bankruptcy case in U.S. history. The No. 2 longdistance phone company declared bankruptcy two years ago, disclosing about $11 billion in accounting fraud.

The company has replaced its board of directors and management team and implemented several ethical policies aimed to restore trust in the former WorldCom. However, many of the pressures MCI faced in 2002, such as declining revenue in its consumer unit, remain. The company says it plans to announce new products and services and new partnerships related to IP technology in the near future.

- XO Communications Inc. has agreed to operate the assets of Allegiance Telecom Inc. as XO waits to close the acquisition of Allegiance.

XO also announced the senior management team who will lead the combined company. Only one of the senior executives hails from Allegiance. Allegiance Chairman and CEO Royce Holland will not join the new senior management team. Wayne Rehberger, XO’s former CFO, has been tapped to fill a new position within the company - COO. Bill Garrahan will take over Rehberger’s post as acting CFO and senior vice president of business development. Matt Harty, former regional vice president for the Northeast region at Allegiance Telecom, was named president of commercial sales for the combined company. Tom Cady, formerly vice president and CEO of SOTAS, a provider of business analytic software for service providers, will join XO as chief marketing officer.

- Would-be carrier’s carrier NextWave Telecom Inc. has reached an agreement to return PCS licenses to the FCC, making a large chunk of spectrum available to be re-auctioned and paving the way for the company to emerge from bankruptcy.

The FCC awarded the licenses to NextWave in the late 1990s, but NextWave had paid only $500 million of the $4.8 billion due before filing for bankruptcy. The FCC and NextWave have fought over rights to the licenses for years, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year the regulator did not have the right to strip the licenses because bankruptcy law protected NextWave.

Earlier this month, Cingular Wireless announced it had acquired 34 PCS licenses for $1.4 billion from NextWave. The licenses represent 17 percent of NextWave’s spectrum. Under the agreement, NextWave would retain 10 percent of the spectrum. The licenses the FCC intends to re-auction originally were valued at $2.4 billion, says an FCC spokesman.

The FCC says it would recover about $1.6 billion if a bankruptcy court approves the agreement. That figure includes the $714 million the FCC received after NextWave sold licenses to Cingular and the $500 million the agency received in 1998 before NextWave filed for bankruptcy.

- Last Mile Connections has signed an agreement with London-based WaveCrest to provide the global voice services provider with collocation, local access connectivity and professional services.

Roy Schiele, COO of WaveCrest, says the deal will enable the carrier to expand its network infrastructure to support a growing carrier client base in the United States. Last Mile Connections will enable WaveCrest to connect to more than 800 buildings in the New York region through a single interconnection.