Sprint: iDEN stays, for now
By Dusan Belic on Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 at 6:43 AM PST In Sprint
Even though many analysts predicted Sprint (NYSE: S) will shut down Nextel’s iDEN network, recently Sprint came out saying it stays. As a matter of fact, the carrier said they will be pushing it ever harder in the coming months, emphasizing the press-to-talk service called Direct Connect.
Back in 2005, Nextel’s network has been described as a valuable asset for Sprint because it was popular with construction crews, taxi services and other business users. But with the changing times, both individual and business users decided to switch over to either CDMA or GSM based networks. The reason is obvious - iDEN doesn’t support more lucrative data services, which at the same time provide additional benefits to the users.
Anyway, one of the rare companies which could benefit from Sprint’s move is Motorola (NYSE: MOT), which is big in iDEN handsets. The problem remains, though, how will the carrier cope with managing two networks. Not to mention their WiMAX plans…
[Via: slashphone]
