Why are they still making IDEN phones?
I'm really confused. I saw where Sprint will have a new RAZR like IDEN phone this year. I thought Sprint was trying to migrate all of it's customers to their network, and that the IDEN network was going to be auctioned off to someone like the government or public safety? I also thought they invented Q Chat so that their current nextel customers would migrate to strictly Sprint. I'm really confused, does anyone know what's going on?
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The former CEO of Sprint (Gary Forsee) had planned on shutting down iDEN as quickly as he could, and he tried to migrate the Nextel subscriber base over to the Sprint CDMA side (i.e. the hybrid "PowerSource" phones that were Sprint phones with an iDEN chip used strictly for Nextel PTT). However, Forsee failed miserably, and Nextel customers started leaving by the hundreds of thousands per quarter.
So Sprint brass sent out letters to the legacy Nextel subscribers promising to keep the iDEN network going strong and fully supported (and even expanded slightly) until at least 2012. Still, Nextel subscribers kept leaving in droves.
Having recently introduced the CDMA-based Qchat PTT system (which the original Nextel owned, by the way; Sprin...
(continues)
So Sprint brass sent out letters to the legacy Nextel subscribers promising to keep the iDEN network going strong and fully supported (and even expanded slightly) until at least 2012. Still, Nextel subscribers kept leaving in droves.
Having recently introduced the CDMA-based Qchat PTT system (which the original Nextel owned, by the way; Sprin...
(continues)
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Very good question.
IDEN is still very profitable and the customers that are remaining still want to have devices to serve their needs.
Sprint is trying to merger the IDEN customer base over to the CDMA customer base by the dual mode devices i.e. hybrids and now with Qchat. They hope that they can move it over by 2012 but I am sure it would take longer than that timeframe unless the continued losses at IDEN increase.
Not many people still understand this very issue about the Consensus Plan. This has to deal with spectrum for public safety in exchange for contiguous spectrum. Regardless, it does not mean that Nextel is getting rid of its network or has to, but it helps to get rid of interference. They are thinking of all kinds of a...
(continues)
IDEN is still very profitable and the customers that are remaining still want to have devices to serve their needs.
Sprint is trying to merger the IDEN customer base over to the CDMA customer base by the dual mode devices i.e. hybrids and now with Qchat. They hope that they can move it over by 2012 but I am sure it would take longer than that timeframe unless the continued losses at IDEN increase.
Not many people still understand this very issue about the Consensus Plan. This has to deal with spectrum for public safety in exchange for contiguous spectrum. Regardless, it does not mean that Nextel is getting rid of its network or has to, but it helps to get rid of interference. They are thinking of all kinds of a...
(continues)
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