Craig Wireless sells NZ rights

Canadian wireless operator Craig Wireless has sold half its New Zealand spectrum rights to venture capital firm Everest Wireless.

Everest paid US$5.75 million ($10.3 million) for a 50 per cent share of companies controlling spectrum owned by Craig Wireless in New Zealand and Norway suitable for wireless broadband.

In a statement to the Toronto Stock Exchange, Craig Wireless co-founder Boyd Craig said the sale demonstrated the relative stability of the value of its spectrum assets.

New owner Rahul Prakash, of Everest, said that as global markets recovered, and with ever-increasing demand for wireless broadband systems, spectrum assets offered attractive returns.

Craig Wireless paid $1.05 million for 40MHz of spectrum in two separate lots in the 2.3 and 2.5 GHz bands at a Government auction in 2007.

The same year, the company paid 72,391,000 Norwegian kroners ($20.5 million) for the Norwegian spectrum.

In 2000, Woosh - then Walker Wireless - paid Craig Communications $6.5 million for spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band.