Unreleased Motorola ic502 iDEN / CDMA hybrid hits eBay

It may have just breezed through the FCC a few short months ago, but Motorola's yet-to-be-released ic502 iDEN / CDMA hybrid phone has already found its way to eBay -- although if the bidding activity is any indication, it doesn't look like Motorola will have much trouble meeting the demand for it. One bid was all it took to snag the hybrid handset, with the winning bidder throwing down an even $300 for the bragging rights. The lack of EVDO, not to mention Bluetooth or a camera, no doubt helped to dampen the anticipation among early adopters a bit, but if you're in desperate need of some hybrid action, the ic502's the only game in town.

[Thanks, Sloop John B]

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2006 7:56PM]

No bluetooth, no camera, no 800MHz band, no AMPS, no EVDO and the typical horrid Moto/Nextel form factor equal a no-go in my mind.

As a Sprint customer, I'm really looking forward to the end of ReadyLink and getting some iDEN Walkie Talkie to go with the CDMA goodness...but this sure isn't the solution!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2006 8:18PM]

As a Sprint customer, this device is not targeted for you. This device is targeted at Nextel markets where there is capacity issues and they want to get Nextel users off the iDen network for regular voice calls. So for all the dissapointed Sprint users, this device is not made for you.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2006 9:51PM]

Agreed Carlos - this phone is aimed at the Nextel customer...who I would guess is pretty used to the Moto/Nextel form factor and not having a lot of extras. But, that being said - I'm not sure Nextel folks will be happy with either.

As for Sprint customers...our day with Direct Connect is coming...just not with this release...

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 1st 2006 1:02PM]

I love the look of most Nextel phones, I guess when I say this my opinion is bias because I am a Nextel customer. Anyway this phone isnt real ugly but its not real nice. Its a basic phone and thats it, but thats because its the first of its kind. I am not going to be quick to jump on this hybrid phone for many reasons.

The more people that leave Nextel’s overloaded service the better my service is going to get. However, that is the lesser of my reasons for not switching to Sprint. My main reason is because I am one of the Nextel lifers. Nextel makes perfect phones in my mind. They have an excellent walkie-talkie and I like the way there phones look and operate. I love the one touch flip open my i870 has and now my next phone pretty much either needs to be a one touch flip open or not be a clam shell style phone. The one touch flip open is just all too important to me now (I have fat fingers). Plus the i870 has blue-tooth , MP3 player and a decent 1.3 mega pixel camera. Its a great phone that fits my needs in every way.

Lastly Nextel has a great customer care line and their plans are well balanced. I admit I was tempted at first to switch to Sprint so I reviewed the plans they had that where similar to my current Nextel plan. I was not impressed and stayed with Nextel. Nextel has more coverage area then Sprint according to their website. I don’t find it hard to believe because I know I got great service when I first started up with Nextel five years ago. However, the Nextel IDEN network isn’t the best and because it is overloaded with users all trying to make calls at the same time its hard for all the Nextel customers to receive great coverage. Anyway hopefully this hybrid phone will convert a lot of Nextel customers to the other side and leave me all alone with my perfectly fine Nextel service provider.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 5th 2006 1:45PM]

The ic502 IS geared more toward Nextel/iDEN users to give more cellular capacity. I am a Sprint Nextel dealer/service technician and I have seen some phones from both sides of the company. No its not going to have all of the Sprint features, not yet anyway. It is the first of its kind, nobody else has anything like it. There will be Hybrids that have EV-DO Bluetooth and cameras and video recorders. But let them work the kinks out first and then we will really see the power of Sprint/Nextel. As for the looks, Nextel has the BEST looking phones on the market. Nextel is based on functionality not features if you cant use the phone what good is the camera or bluetooth going to do, and they still do it with style. The ic502 will be a interesting product to say the least. But be on the lookout for the ic902

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 24th 2006 2:47PM]

well i'm a sprint customer and i read all the comments everyone made. and i'm looking forward to this phone. what you guys dont realize this is just a stepping stone for sprint. if you did your research you'll see sprint is also productings four other hybrid phones. the IC402 (web, text, downloads, etc) the sanyo 7000 with will have evdo cam/video, mp3 etc (this the full loaded one) the rest i can't remember but i know its going to have evdo, mp3, and a touch screen (like the ppc-6700) all these phones will be available before 15th of Dec. so these new changes is great. in fact i had my IC502 now for 2 wks and i love it. i cant wait for complete change over.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 28th 2006 4:34PM]

I was skeptical at first about the main thing as a Nextel customer I was most interested in-COVERAGE, when I heard that this phone was only going to offer 1900mhz roaming. However, when I began to look at the coverage maps for my area, with the new proposed hybrid coverage, I began to realize that while this phone wouldn't be like it's RL cousins (i.e. tri-band), I noticed that nevertheless in my neck of the woods, all the places where there are holes in my IDEN coverage, PCS would be filling in the gaps. The end result: virtually NO HOLES in my coverage and I also will be picking up some modest expanded coverage in nearby localities as well (Blairsville, Ga., Ocoee, Tn., Blue Ridge, Ga., Ellijay, Ga., Pikeville, Tn.) just to name a few. I don't know if I will buy THIS phone, or wait until they do come out with one that has 800mhz CDMA digital roaming or not. Not really expecting analog, as it's on it's way out of the cellular picture.