NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Executives from NextWave Wireless Telecom Inc. have resumed talks with several other wireless companies over disputed spectrum licenses in an effort to come to an agreement about ownership, a newspaper reported Monday.

In a ruling by a lower court, the U.S. government was ordered to return the licenses to NextWave, but it appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which is preparing to hear the case, the Wall Street Journal said.

Access to the spectrum would provide space for wireless companies to expand service, including high-speed mobile Internet access.

NextWave previously had agreed to sell the licenses to Verizon (VZ: Research, Estimates) and other wireless companies for $6 billion, a deal which would have required the buyers also to pay $10 billion collectively to the government. But the talks fell through.

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In 1996, NextWave agreed to pay $4.7 billion to the government for the spectrum licenses, but the company filed for bankruptcy in 1998 after having paid only $500 million of the total. The government repossessed the licenses and resold them for $16 billion to other wireless companies. But the deal collapsed when the Federal Communication Commission ordered the government to return the licenses to NextWave last year.

People close to the situation said the wireless companies haven't come to a decision yet, but that if they do it is likely to be very different than the previous agreement, the report said.