wireless telephone company.

NextWave Telecom Inc. on Thursday modified its reorganisation proposal after several high-profile investors gave it more than $1.6 billion, which would help it build its advanced wireless network.

Apart from the fibre-optic cable builder Global Crossing, Liberty Media Group, the television programming arm of AT&T Corp have also chipped in.

Other investors include Texas Pacific Group and Pacific CapitalGroup.

The new funds "will provide an equity infusion so we can move forward and hopefully get the network built and get going,'' said NextWave spokesman Michael Regan.

"By investing in NextWave, with a strategic set of partners, Liberty Media has a unique opportunity to be on the ground floor of the wireless Internet explosion,'' said Liberty Media Chief Executive Robert Bennett.

Representatives of some of the investors, such as Global Crossing, Pacific Capital Group and Texas Pacific Group, will join NextWave's board after NextWave's reorganisation plan is effective.

In addition to being an investor, Global Crossing also will be NextWave's preferred provider of local, long-distance, and international network capacity and Web hosting services.

"NextWave is building the next-generation, local-access network that will be a natural complement to our global next- generation network,'' said Robert Annunziata, Global Crossing's CEO.

NextWave's reorganisation plan has been tied up by various legal and regulatory battles.

NextWave had bid $4.7 billion for the valuable licences that serve the latest generation of wireless phones in a 1996 government auction, but filed for bankruptcy in 1998 after paying just $474 million of what it owed.

The licences would allow NextWave to offer wireless telephone services in 95 areas around the states.