Sprint won't dump Nextel after all

The Nextel system was never for sale. I challenge any of you to find an official press release that says the iDEN system is for sale from Sprint Nextel. If Sprint wanted to put the iDEN network up for sale they must notify the FCC of such actions, by law, to date there have been no such FCC filings. All you will find is moronic investors calling for the sale of the iDEN network. When you have a company that is having real big issues nothing is off the table, including the sale of Sprint's CDMA network. Dan Hesse said, "Nothing is off the table" which is a total open statement that can mean anything. He has never came out and said, we are in fact looking for a buyer of the iDEN network and we "want" to sell it.

As for a buyer, who would want to take on that mess, the mess of spitting the CDMA and iDEN networks apart. Sprint has spent massive amounts of money and time putting CDMA sites in iDEN shelters. Sprint went to one billing system on the networks, the billing system Nextel used. Sprint is using the inventory system that Nextel was using and they are tied at the brain stem. You could pull the networks apart and sell one off but in the long run you would not make a dime off of doing so. The buyer would not make a dime either so there would not be a point is selling the iDEN network off to start with. Lets put it this way, if Sprint Nextel were to sell iDEN off it would hurt the CDMA network and in fact would hit the cdma network with a crushing blow.

I work for Network as a iDEN tech. Sprint is truly the worst company I have EVER worked for. Bar none. They have THE worst management. I love it when 'leadership' tries to spin the Nextel story as they've done again here. You need to ask 1) why would they be interested in the iDEN network when they are pouring millions into QCHAT? They tell you they've dumped billions into iDEN. The REAL truth is, they have not put one new dollar of new 'upgrade' $ into the iDEN network since they bought Nextel. There was a build out plan and contract in place from Motorola after the Nextel sale to expand capacity. Sprint agreed to support the existing Nextel/Motorola build out to AFR. Thats it. They want the public and investors to believe they are doing all these 'upgrades'. They have done absolutely none!! I see in the news release where they state Sprint has brought 'thousands' of new iDEN cell sites on air. That, again, is a full spin on the truth. Part of my job is to bring new sites on the air. I work in one of the largest markets. We turned up a handful of sites earlier this year (5?). Now we are decommissioning sites by the HUNDREDS to balance capacity due to lost customers. Where's that in the news release!? Before and just after the merger, my market was in huge growth. We did turn up a ton of sites (2005-2007) but it had NOTHING to do with Sprint. As we all know, they lost our customers, now we are contracting in growth. Folks, don't believe what you read about Sprint and Nextel. The ONLY reason they want to 'invest' in Nextel is to have enought time to get the 12-14 million iDEN customers to upgrade to QCHAT capable phones so they can get rid of Nextel/iDEN. THAT, my readers, IS THE REAL TRUTH with Sprint! Your not fooling me Mr. Hesse. I see the snake oil salesman in that empty suit~

I couldn't agree more. Third quarter results are going to be devastating, possibly even starting a run on customers bailing out. Sprint will be gone within months. The shame is, it's a good network with good people, just the most horrible upper management in the history of the industry.

Interesting that they chose roadies as the subject of their latest commercial - I know many touring professionals (roadies) and none of them use the Nextel PTT service - they all have localized 2-way radios and normal phones mostly due to the lack of coverage of the iDen network.

Just enjoying the irony of someone misspelling "incompetent" when dogging someone else.

The 6:1 vocoder was supposed to add capacity to the iDEN network, but it dropped call quality right before and into the time of the merger. This problem has been corrected for a long time now and the iDEN network is operating at best-ever levels.

A buddy of mine tried Verizon's PTT and hated it. He uses Sprint's Nextel Direct Connect and loves it.

Kudos to Hesse for knowing that iDEN is one competitive advantage that neither Verizon nor AT&T can touch. Sub-second connection speeds, the biggest line-up of PTT handsets, the ability to direct connect when the public switches go down in a crisis and many other advantages are only available with iDEN technology. I'm hearing of business customers trying the others and then coming back to Sprint for PTT. Good move here by one of the sharper CEOs in the business.

Every body knows Force couldn't manage two networks at one time , and some may say he couldn't run one. However anyone who knows or knew any thing about Nextel could tell you it was in trouble before the buyout. Their has been many improvements to the network since. I would agree that it is best not to sell right now. Their are multiple groups interested in Nextel but could not get the financing for it, not because it is worth less than 5 billion but because the credit market is to tight right now. So I say to all the anonymous losers who cant get over the grudge they hold against Sprint move on and get a life.

Should say "Sprint couldn't dump Nextel after all.
No one is Dumb enough to buy whats left of it after the incompatent sprint engineers turned it into crap.

More articles from Hesse the more positive I get. You know what is wrong with the fact of Sprint rebounding. Let's look at the trends that are now everday things, that was started by Sprint, you know that bad guy who wants everything from everone. PCS and the network they had back in the day was the first, it was something that these other so called Comm company replicated. Even before that the very first fiber optic network that should of blown everyone away. But the world has use this to build theirs with. So what is wrong with the fact of Sprint rebounding. The next generation of anything may come from it, none of those other Comm companies have been a pioneer!! And to be based at the starting place that the pioneers went west from, I believe it the coolest thing that could be. Hey possibly a new marketing presentation!

God Bless Sprint and the dreams of the future that this company has had through out it's existance. Ok so they have had management issue, how many family do you know run great?

Sprinter's just do the next right thing that is infront of you and all will be just fine.

RLG past employee from the stone age!

Not after Sprint ruined the Nextel network with their crew of imbicile management.

Sprint corp will be sold off in the next year.

At $3 per share (this will drop even lower when they annouce their 3rd quarter blunders) their spectrum is worth that much.

key differentiator just means he couldn't find sucker to off-load it on!! so, you may as well water that dead plant

All the comm people I know at Sprint say iDEN is a piece of crap. Of course it is a key differentiator for Sprint; nobody else wanted it. Guess the marketing idiots talked Hesse into it.