Sprint bails on QChat, goes back to iDEN for all its PTT needs

We saw the writing on the wall here for a while, but Sprint's now gone ahead and made it official that it'll be phasing out its push-to-talk offerings based on Qualcomm's QChat technology in favor of -- what else? -- good ol' iDEN. For Sprint, the move makes sense; when the EV-DO Rev. A-powered QChat system was introduced last year, a Sprint / Nextel schism was a very real possibility -- but since, the company has ended up pouring money into its Direct Connect network, sprucing it up, and placing a renewed emphasis on its prepaid Boost Mobile brand which shares Nextel's airwaves. There really isn't much use for two incompatible PTT systems on any network, so one had to go -- and yes, QChat is getting the boot. Existing customers will continue to be supported, but Sprint says that it won't be offering new models; good thing iDEN phones just got pretty for the first time.

[dodgerfan Posted Dec 2nd 2009 6:44PM]

Wow... Sprint really is a disaster. I thought the whole point of QChat was so they could herd all the Nextel users to Sprint's network and shut the iDen network down. Boost is just a brand name, and there's no reason it couldn't just be another sprint MVNO. Now, with the Clear network (which Sprint owns 51%), they are running 3 networks. What a joke.

[periks19 Posted Dec 2nd 2009 7:23PM]

@dodgerfan
Tell me about I have been sprint loyal i was always waiting for Touch pro 2 or any smart phone device with ptt capabilities. But in a way is better that they decided to keep iden for their ptt maybe they can come up with a device lets say for example the Pre 2 with cdma/gsm/iden capabilities would be better (dream) instead of a qchat device because iden will work in other countries like mexico, brazil etc.

[PeterFnet Posted Dec 2nd 2009 8:07PM]

I agree. I'll put any money on a sale for Nextel

[Shawn Posted Dec 5th 2009 7:52AM]

Sad that this didn't work, I really had high hopes of the creation of a real smartphone with ptt (besides the current Blackberry offering on Nextel). Now I guess they will just have to go back to the tried and true dual mode CDMA/iDen method. Please Sprint, give us a good looking WebOS, or WinMo, or Android device with EVDO Rev A AND iDEN! And make it at least have the ability to roam onto 850Mhz not like the sh*tty ic402 "Moto Blend". K thnx.