http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/ Engadget Comments for Sprint "seriously considering" spinning off Nextel http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 5th 2008 4:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
Nextel, especially in the big cities, had a cult following and their phones were considered cool. Every single phone since the i95 was recieved well despite the fact the technology was lackluster and lagged behind Japanese/Korean counterparts.

The last great phone released from Nextel was the i880 which delivered a phone the size and style of Sprint phones but came with decent camera/mp3 abilities.

Then Sprint took them over.

They didn't release a single worthwhile handset in all this time.

They didn't even bother to remake the i930 which was STUPIDLY released without bluetooth during the upsurge in bluetooth headsets (as fashion accessories)

Then T-Mobile flew past nextel with the Sidekick 3.

Then iPhone came out and put the final nails in Nextel's coffins.

Goddamn Sprint.]]>May 5th 2008 8:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 5th 2008 4:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
When Sprint bought Nextel, they all got rid of their phones. Assumed Sprint was going to incorporate it into one service (instead of having a Nextel OR Sprint contract) or can it.]]>May 5th 2008 7:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
It was a poor investment from the beginning.]]>May 5th 2008 4:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
If listening to some loudmouth on a cellphone is annoying, then listening to two people on one of those stupid walkie-talkie phones is absolutley enraging.]]>May 5th 2008 4:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 5th 2008 4:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
Amazing how Sprint incorporated the dreaded PTT "BEEP" into those freaky Sprint commercials, considering how much just everyone I know can't stand that evil sound...]]>May 5th 2008 5:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
I know! I know! I told Johnson to fax out those TPS reports.

*BEEEP!*

Ok. Uhhhh. Well just make sure you get Mary on the deliverable because we can't have another fuck up like last time.

*BEEEP!* Yep, ok I gotta go, I'm on a crowded subway here about to go under a tun...]]>May 5th 2008 5:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 6th 2008 8:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
Just because YOU don't find something useful, or YOU find it annoying does not necessarily make it so.

But thanks for your thoughtful insight anyway...]]>May 13th 2008 12:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 5th 2008 4:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 5th 2008 4:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
Nextel was wonderful until Sprint bought it... I've been a loyal customer because of the wonderful customer service they used to have. If I had the smallest problem all I had to do was call and it was dealt with. Overages? upgrade your plan for the month and we'll wave them... Roaming? oh yeah there is none...

Now things have gotten worse customer service wise, but still not enough for me to abandon Nextel.

Its probably the fact that I pay $40 a month for free incoming, free walky-talky, free nights starting at 7pm, free weekends, enough text messages to kill someone and 300 minutes to cover the rest.]]>May 5th 2008 9:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 5th 2008 4:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
I don't like the fragmented nature of our wireless landscape (cellular-wise). I want this country's carriers to focus more. Meaning that eventually, I'd like to see them meld their wireless technologies into one single flavor (GSM based, not CDMA - I prefer the flexibility of SIM cards and GSM phones, which certainly offer a more global perspective).

Technologies like iDen, which has no future, which Sprint itself doesn't even use, and which we all know no one cares about, just tells me that Sprint is distracted and isn't truly focused - certainly not enough on worthwhile goals (like their WiMAX pursuits). They need to be investing all their energies on one thing. Where exactly did they think they were headed with this silly iDen technology? It was a waste of time, money, and energy from the start.]]>May 5th 2008 5:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 5th 2008 5:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
Or at least that's what they tell us employees.]]>May 5th 2008 4:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 5th 2008 4:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 5th 2008 4:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 5th 2008 5:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
For contractors or other businesses with workers out in the field (such as my brother-in-law, who works for a regional fiber-optic company in central Texas) it simplifies matters by not having to wait to call one another, they just radio back and forth easily.

According to a Sprint salesperson I know, people here mail off a DirectConnect device to relatives in Mexico, and can then talk to one another very inexpensively.

]]>May 5th 2008 7:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/( Guy in line to get coffee NEXTEL phone )*Beep* "You there?"
( Guy in line )*Beep* "Ahhh, yeah."
*Beep* "Waddya doin'?"
*Beep* "nuttin' wassup?"
*Beep* "nuttin"
*Beep* "You watch that thing on TV last night?"
*Beep* "What thing?"
...continues like this for at least 10 minutes. Guy actually turns the phone volume up louder as the coffee grinder runs, then never turns it back down again.

Yes Sprint, please liquidate all NEXTEL assets
]]>May 5th 2008 5:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
"Walkie Talkies" are for police and security officers, the military, forest rangers, and 12 year-olds. They don't belong on cell phones.]]>May 5th 2008 5:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
But it still doesn't change my opinion that Sprint needs to dump Nextel.]]>May 6th 2008 3:22AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
Remember when Sprint first bought Nextel? They stopped marketing Nextel phones/service because they were at network capacity! And they just lost a lawsuit with the gov't that says they have to move off some of the spectrum for public safety concerns.

It really can't get too much worse for Sprint.]]>May 5th 2008 5:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
I remember the day that UFMI went nation-wide, and a 2-way key-up worked from Virginia to California, there was dancing in the halls. A company on one coast could key-up an employee on the other coast within 2 seconds.

Then the Markiting-Bots and Sales-Drones thought "Everybody" should have an i1000+ and Nextel bought out "Lets Talk Cellular".

A whole new customer-service department was formed in Atlanta (and then out-sourced to IBM), we didn't know how to deal with acounts that had only one phone.

Then, the winds changed, whispers of buy-out.... We thought (and hoped) that we would be bought out by AT&T. Well that didn't happen. SBC (Cingular) bought AT&T, and kept the AT&T name.


]]>May 5th 2008 5:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
My dad offered to get me one on the company's dime, (I had to have been 9 or 10, maybe, not exactly sure, it was mainly for safety reasons though). I told him no, the thought of someone being able to contact me any time of the day was really creepy. I opted for a pager instead. Boy, times sure have changed.]]>May 5th 2008 6:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 5th 2008 6:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 5th 2008 6:33PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 5th 2008 6:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 5th 2008 7:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
It all went downhill once Sprint took over. I ended up switching to T-Mobile, and I'm a happy customer with them.]]>May 5th 2008 7:33PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 5th 2008 8:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
Nextel's usership wasn't even scratched by the crappy handsets those company's put out with PTT. In fact, it was during that same time than Boost Mobile had an upsurge in users.

What ultimately killed Nextel was Motorola never releasing key phones for it. The V3xx became vaporware and Nextel never got its own Razrv3. Nextel got a Blackberry but it never had the promised WiMAX data network to give it downloads at the speeds of Edge and Verizon's Ev-Do.

Keep in mind, poor people are still using Boost Mobiles. If someone intelligent works with BM, they could bring BM out stronger than Nextel.]]>May 5th 2008 8:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/May 6th 2008 2:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
Maybe because they had a loyal customer base, which Sprint does NOT have. ]]>May 6th 2008 8:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
I watched RFE's unboxing and assembling NEW site equipment on a daily basis, "old end of life"?, I beg to differ. ]]>May 6th 2008 11:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/iDEN was and still is End of Life because there is no upgrade path to 3G. Nextel was faced with eventually having to replace their entire infrastructure with CDMA equipment (Qualcomm even developed the CDMA PTT replacement QChat for them). This would have been an enormous investment for them. Instead, they found someone else to give the problem to. And rather than just ditching it and forcing everyone to go CDMA, Sprint tried to integrate the two networks. With as many iDEN customers are defecting now, Sprint probably would have been better off in the long run to have just pulled the plug and tried to convince as many as possible to move to CDMA. It's pretty clear that most iDEN customers have a pretty high tolerance for pain, so Sprint probably could have gotten away with this and would probably be in a better spot than they are today. Oh, and the orifice this comes from is one which worked for Sprint in Network during the Nextel "integration," and I heard plenty of stories about the sad shape of iDEN. Perhaps the equipment was just that terrible out of the box, I really can't speak to that.

Mobile Phone Diva:
I agree that Nextel had good customer loyalty. If Sprint truly thought they could buy customer loyalty, they really were (and still are) in bad shape.]]>May 12th 2008 2:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
I picked up Nextel because after Hurricane Ivan the walkie-talkie Nextel (and Southern Link) phones were the only communications people had to the outside world. All the other cell phones got the dreaded “no service” or service unavailable beeping tone. Land lines and power was out for over a week in most areas.

Yeah the chirp can be annoying if you’re in a crowd, but that’s when you’re supposed to use the phone portion.
]]>May 13th 2008 6:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
And it is just one little button to push to make it a silent conversation, it says what button to push right on the screen. It annoys me as well when people don't go silent inside a crowded place. I always put it on silent. The push to talk is great if your on vacation. The I880 even will act like a real Walki-talki if your not in range of a tower and goes for 5 miles. That can come in handy if your Camping or Hunting.]]>May 13th 2008 10:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/sprint-seriously-considering-spinning-off-nextel/
I dont see how people can come off and say loud talkers and chirpers' are annoying when anyone talking on a cellphone can be annoying next to you. Plus "Chirping" in some ways share alot with SMS communication.

In way that one person exchanges their information and then the person receives the info then relays a reply. There's no cross-talk no interruption of relaying your full message. Its concise and short exchange of communication. And with the Cellular aspect, you have a wide range of service area. That's the reason alot of public services, site facilitators, and other so call "blue collar" entities use it.]]>May 13th 2008 3:56PM