Beep beep -- Sprint's looking to offload iDEN network?
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Aug 9th 2008 12:18PM
posted Aug 9th 2008 12:18PM
Still committed to iDEN, eh? After another relatively brutal quarter of lost cash, lost subscribers, and lost opportunities, word on the street is that Sprint might be rethinking its approach to its legacy push-to-talk network -- the obsolescence-bound spectrum it acquired via its purchase of Nextel a few years back for the questionable price of $35 billion. Given Sprint's current financial state, a liquidity crunch means that the carrier is looking to offload any salable piece; Nextel's not exactly the most attractive piece of that puzzle with a declining subscriber base, limited bandwidth, and a limited range of Moto hardware to back it up, but even at its current estimated value of $5 billion, analysts are suggesting that Sprint could be willing to bite at a deal. NII Holdings, which operates iDEN networks under the Nextel brand in Brazil, Mexico, and a handful of other Latin American countries, is being tossed around as a potential suitor, as are private equity firms looking to make a quick buck. How one goes about making a quick buck on a network as old and quirky as iDEN in the year 2008, though, remains to be seen.[Via Phone Scoop]
I still use Nextel's iDEN network every day. It's a cheap and fast cross border communication that is unmatched by any other offering. Unfortunately there's not a lot of users that need this type of communication.
I'm with you on that. At least they'll be expanding the possible userbase with QCHAT.
As a Sprint employee, selling off Nextel makes alot sense. Now that there are Sprint phones with PTT abilities, there is little advantage to sticking with IDEN. Selling off IDEN would also make alot of Sprint's support issues much easier. Years after the merger there are still compatibility issues that result in having two completely different networks. Also very few, if any, phones on the horizon even mention Nextel
Even though IDEN is seeing a decline in use by the personal user, don't count it out, many businesses and government agencies rely upon it. Sprint may drop Nextel but don't forget there are other regional carriers of IDEN (Airpeak, Airtell, ect...). IDEN will survive through these carriers and become a primarily commercial and government platform.
The federal government should buy Nextel.
BAM!
Instant nationwide first-responder network. No it's not the best technology but it sure beats whats in place now- nothing. And so many departments already use it.