Sprint says QChat to be in 40 markets shortly

Is that iDEN's swan song we hear playing in the background? Nope, apparently not. Buried in between fits of bad news in Sprint's earnings call yesterday, CEO Dan Hesse chatted up the rollout of its next-gen PTT network, based on Qualcomm's QChat technology that rides atop EV-DO Rev. A. Currently available in just a very small handful of markets -- and only to business customers, at that -- Hesse says that the new Direct Connect goods will be available in 40 markets over the next few months, and on a full 80 percent of its EV-DO Rev. A network by the end of 2008. That setup gives Sprint a nice migration path from its legacy Nextel network, but interestingly, Hesse says that the company's "economic analysis" suggests that it should actually keep running iDEN and QChat side by side. Of course, if this is the same nature of "economic analysis" that got it into the financial pickle it's currently in, it might just be worth... you know, reanalyzing.

[Via mocoNews]

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 7:10PM]

Sprint, Sprint, Sprint...yes, keep iDEN running forever. The Nextel merger/purchase was as cockamamie as it could get...and did nothing but take resources away from the CDMA side and alienate and make customers on both sides leave in droves.

Great leadership, Hesse, great leadership...you're just as clueless as the rest of the 'tards who've come before and will undoubtedly follow, as I suspect your failure to produce anything other than continued churn and customer defections will lead to a quick dismissal.

[(Unverified) Posted May 15th 2008 3:43AM]

I never laughed so good from this article.

"it might just be worth... you know, reanalyzing"

you couldn't say it any better!