We've seen some
pretty wild on-again / off-again
relationships in the scandalous world of gadget affairs, but this one has been swinging from one extreme to the other at breakneck pace. Let's recap: after proclaiming that it was absolutely
committed to
iDEN in February of 2008, rumors then
started flying that Sprint was looking to offload the whole thing and move on with life. A month later, the carrier's CEO
practically confirmed that an iDEN network sale was still an option. Now, the seemingly bipolar company has issued a press release reaffirming its adoration for the chirping-est network this side of Oz, stating that "after careful review of the iDEN business, Sprint intends to retain and rejuvenate this important asset." Which could be PR speak for "nobody wanted this thing, so what other option did we really have?" Regardless of the truth, it seems the push-to-talk network that just won't die will live to see another day, but as history has shown, all that could change in a split second (or at Sprint Speed, whichever you prefer).
[Via
phonescoop]
posted Oct 31st 2008 8:25AM
Does anyone at Sprint still think the Nextel "merger" was a good idea?
"Bipolar" is a lot better term than the truth - which is that Sprint is simply insane!
People knock Nextel, but for drivers, warehouse, etc applications, it is demanded that we use iden devices at my company. They are all anxiously awaiting the Curve iden that is coming out sometime soon. We just bought four more BB 7100i's this week, and that phone is embarrasingly old. It is still produced though, because it is the only option for BES + iden.
This is good news for us, and many others. It's not a mainstream market, it was a gimmick for consumers, but it's great for businesses where they need instantly reachable people.
There was a brief time when I used to want a Nextel phone...I think it was back in 1999 or 2000 when you could buy an aftermarket antenna that would flash when you were talking on the phone. That's right, back in 2000, when flashing antenna's were kinda cool.
It is now 2009 and I don't want an external antenna on my phone at all, let alone one that flashes.
Kthxbye, Nextel.
It seems you have posted through the interdimensional time rift onto Engadget 2008. To avoid a paradox, please post on Engadget 2009 from now on.
Oops! Typo...U know what I meant ;)
Actually what you see here is the fact that the new Nextel i9 phone is slightly larger then a Motorola Razor which is a plus with no external antenna.
In September 2008 Motorola announced a new upgrade to the new Melody network, Motorola's next-generation iDEN dispatch and telephone interconnect core switching platform. Not only does the platform provide customers with the reliability of push-to-talk, but it also has the ability to elegantly scale up in capacity over time to serve several million dispatch and interconnect subscribers and to expand to more than 1,000 cell sites.
In a move aimed squarely at Sprint Nextel, Motorola has announced that it's working on solutions capable of supporting iDEN Melody plus WiMAX as a stop-gap 4G solution.
I recently went back to a Nextel Blackberry for my job. I was looking forward to having my contact list from outlook seamlessly tie the nextel contact list, but no such luck. So, the first few weeks has been trying to get my contacts' radio numbers matched up to my global contact list without duplicates in the BB. Luckily, the department keeps a contact list on a spreadsheet (HUH?).
Oh, and why is it that my personal free Google account with IMAP automatically refreshes the inbox on all my email-capable devices (phone, N800 and PCs), but the Blackberry just collects a ton of unsorted mail from my companies' Exchange server and doesn't do anything else?
If that's what people think a smart phone is, no wonder the iPhone is such a hit.
Oh, and after living without a Direct Connect solution and coming back, I have to say it really doesn't save much time. Speakerphones and/or bluetooth headsets are far superior. The best thing about 2-way radios is roundtable discussion and general calls for assistance (since everyone is monitoring the repeater), 2 things that are difficult and very expensive with Nextels.
I recently went back to a Nextel Blackberry for my job. I was looking forward to having my contact list from outlook seamlessly tie the nextel contact list, but no such luck. So, the first few weeks has been trying to get my contacts' radio numbers matched up to my global contact list without duplicates in the BB. Luckily, the department keeps a contact list on a spreadsheet (HUH?).
Oh, and why is it that my personal free Google account with IMAP automatically refreshes the inbox on all my email-capable devices (phone, N800 and PCs), but the Blackberry just collects a ton of unsorted mail from my companies' Exchange server and doesn't do anything else?
If that's what people think a smart phone is, no wonder the iPhone is such a hit.
Oh, and after living without a Direct Connect solution and coming back, I have to say it really doesn't save much time. Speakerphones and/or bluetooth headsets are far superior. The best thing about 2-way radios is roundtable discussion and general calls for assistance (since everyone is monitoring the repeater), 2 things that are difficult and very expensive with Nextels.
Sorry about the double post...
Hello, my name is BJ DeHut and I am a representative for Sprint. We have decided to retain our iDEN network because we looked at every option and determined that the network and the push-to-talk business is a valuable asset to our full component of wireless products and services. The original Telephony article that this posting references as a source quotes an analyst suggesting that PTT isn't a differentiator because of the availability of cheap talk plans and texting. Rescue workers can't stop to text. Construction workers can't stop to text. PTT will always be of value, and despite what the same analyst suggested to Telephony -- yes, there are new services existing and coming for PTT users. We currently offer and are developing Push-to-X services that provide a new generation of split second communication on both the iDEN and our CDMA networks. Yes, Sprint had some rocky times with iDEN after the Sprint Nextel merger, but the network is operating at the best metrics in its history, and we are not going to give an inch to our competitors.