The Nextel portion of Sprint Nextel has been losing subscribers even faster than the Kansas City Chiefs have been losing starting quarterbacks lately.

Dan Hesse, Sprint’s starting QB, promised Thursday that his company definitely is fixing its once-ailing Nextel unit.

Whether that means Sprint eventually will sell or keep Nextel, however, remains uncertain.

“What I made clear from the first day I got here is that everything is on the table,” Hesse said during a presentation at the Goldman Sachs Communicopia event in New York. “I have looked at everything, including iDEN.”

When Sprint bought Nextel Communications in 2005, the company had a solid and rapidly growing base of loyal customers. They liked a service -- made possible with a technology known as iDEN -- that allowed them to push a button and turn their cell phones into high-performance walkie talkies.

Much of that loyalty went poof as the Nextel network encountered problems that made completing a clear call less likely than a Chiefs quarterback completing a touchdown pass when it counts. Not good.

Sprint has been shopping its Nextel unit. The company initially paid some $38 billion though it has no hope of getting anywhere near that amount today. But, as Hesse indicated Thursday, paying down debt is a big priority and the business surely could fetch several billion dollars to advance that campaign.

In the meantime, Hesse said, "Plan A" is to reinvigorate Nextel. It's a valuable business that Sprint doesn't necessarily have to sell, he said.

The network is much improved, probably performing better than it ever has. The company is launching new phones for the Nextel network and new high-profile ads also are running.

"We're really focused on doing as well as we can," Hesse said. "But frankly, whatever option you choose to pursue to help you with the business, the better."

A better-run Nextel business could help Sprint stabilize. Or find a buyer.

Some argue that the so-called push-to-talk services are passe in an age where consumers are so interested in Internet surfing, navigation and other more newfangled mobile phone services. Hesse noted, however, that rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless are making new pushes recently with their own push-to-talk services.

Massive integration missteps involved in bolting Sprint and Nextel together have accounted for many of the company's key problems over the past three years. Unbolting the unit is daunting. But possible, says Walter Piecyk of Pali Research.

"We believe a sale of the iDEN business is possible in many different forms and is likely attractive to multiple bidders," Piecyk wrote in a report this week. "Furthermore, we believe there is a willingness by the new board and management team to move forward with such a transaction."

So by the end of this year, is it more likely for Sprint to have crafted a deal for Nextel or for Tyler Thigpen to have led the Chiefs into the playoffs?

Piecyk didn't address this question specifically, but if he were asked, it sounds like he has more faith in Hesse's abiility to complete a Hail Mary than Tyler's. Or Damon's. Or Brodie's. Or...you get the idea.

Piecyk estimates a Nextel sale would bring in more than $5 billion, and he said it makes sense for Sprint to hammer out a deal before the end of the year.

"Nextel is ugly, but we believe still salveageable," he wrote.