Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Sprint Close to Buying Nextel

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the stack-and-attack dept.

NateDawg writes "After the recent merger of AT&T and Cingular, it looks like Sprint is close to buying out Nextel. According to CNet, the different networks could bring expensive problems, but that could be overcome by the diversity of the company's clients. Nextel has many corporate clients, while Sprint appeals to families and teens."

3 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. We'll see ... by nbvb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We'll see how this goes.

    If you think Cingular/ATT is a bloodbath, wait till you see this one.

    Divergent technologies, different networks, and completely different corporate philosophies.

    Nextel caters to the business user (not typically the white-collar CEO types, but more of the blue-collar type) and it's great for that.

    Sprint basically picks up the leftovers that VZW & Cingular don't want (those with iffy credit ratings ...)

    Yeah, good luck. Match made in heaven, really.

  2. Consolidate is expected, plus Nextel Phones rock by FerretFrottage · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In this area consolidation is exepcted. How many carriers can the market space really support...I say 3 just because it's a magic number I think Nextel is currently the number 5 wireless carrier, not sure about sprint, but I think it's in the top 3 (Verizon is/was number 1 last time I checked).

    The thing I love about Nextel are their phones. From a developers [J2ME] perspective, the are very easy to work with (except for webjal). Specifically, their iDen network and their programming APIs allow access to the GPS functionality of the phone. The i730 has a complete programmers' guide available for download from the Motorla site. Can't wait to get my hands on their latest camera phone to see if you can programatically control the camera. Then you could snap a pic and tag the info with the GPS coordinates.

    Additionally, they [Nextel] have a nice developers site. Downside is that I find Nextel converage to be much worse than Verizon, so I ended up needing a Verizon phone for actual talking and a Nextel one for fun development.

    --
    "Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
  3. Here's how this will work. by s.o.terica · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The reason that Sprint wants Nextel is that Nextel is the network that has best been able to take advantage of the Network Effect, i.e. the effect where each node on a network is made more valuable by each additional node that is added. Nextel has Direct Connect, its walkie-talkie service that is hugely popular with businesses, and the main reason that Nextel has the lowest "churn" rate in the industry. Nextel business customers won't switch to another network because then they won't be able to Direct Connect with other Nextel phones anymore. Period.

    So, Sprint/Qualcomm came up with a competing alternative to Direct Connect called ReadyLink, but it's not anywhere near as useful as Direct Connect because there aren't nearly as many other people who have it.

    So in the short term, what Sprint is going to do is to make changes on the network side to allow Sprint phones to walkie-talkie with Nextel phones. That will effectively instantly make more valuable both Nextel's phones and Sprint's phone.

    In the longer term, Nextel is going to have to move to new spectrum that the FCC has given them due to Nextel phones interfering with emergency vehicle communication. Because of this, they will have to move customers to new phones. So since they have to move their network and swap out their customers' phones anyway, there is no reason that they wouldn't just take the opportunity to move to the significantly more efficient, flexible, and forwards-compatible CDMA 1xRTT (and soon EV-DO high-speed data) standard (that Sprint just happens to run on.

    Bingo. Now it begins to make sense, eh?