Nextel adds 605,000 customers in 2Q, 13.9M total

Small clarification - previous Nextel comparisons for numbers have not included Boost. The Nextel number (as noted above) is 546K. Previously, that was done since Boost was not a nationwide service (is it yet?).

 

full nextel PR:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040721/215368_1.html

Churn 1.6%, ARPU $70

 

I thought Nextel had some issues..

 

Definitely a strong quarter for Nextel, no question about them continuing their industry-best financials.

 

I don't see the appeal of Nextel. They even have very good coverage here, and I am totally not interested in them. Hardly anyone has them here for personal use. One of my bosses has Nextel for his personal phone, he says the network has been having a lot of issues lately. Calls that go through, but no sound, dropped calls, random DC problems. He keeps them because a lot of people in southern DE (beaches) have Nextel, because they do have good coverage down there, and DC is important.

We all thought the ATT GSM conversion was a nightmare, Nextel is probably going to go through a lot worse! Are they doing CDMA? Oh wait, they probably have no plan yet! I just do not see why anyone chooses them as a provider unless they need DC (or the coverage that no one else can provide).

 

Nextel is still mostly business use. I think it is still over 70%.

 

Matt, when I was in Florida in March....everyone had Nextel! Lots of ATT and T-Mobile too, but mostly Nextel. Blah...most businesses here in DE use Verizon (which is becoming a problem...cough capacity).

 

I don't see the appeal of Nextel either. Sometimes it can be annoying when I hear someone loudly using PTT in a public place such as a restaurant (constant beeping). Nextel users I know always rave about the 2 way radio thing but I don't think it's a very efficient way to hold a conversation.

 

The company that works with mine uses Nextel, and the 2way sounds pretty bad. They usually just call each other. Since Nextel doesn't have mobile to mobile (well some brand new plans do)....this seems like a big waste to me. Get Verizon, ATT, etc. and use mobile to mobile minutes instead. Nextel is very expensive to start with, and just using them for cellular has to be pricey. My company uses Verizon, the state of Delaware makes us (stupid quasi-state owned company!), but it's better than Nextel!

 

I'm really not all that fond of Nextel myself. They have bulky phones that seem to have poorer battery life then other phones sold by other carriers, rate plans aren't that good, and there coverage just looks very thin to me. Another problem with Nextel I have is the technology they use. Nextel is the only company to really use IDEN minus a couple of smaller carriers in the US that Nextel won't even allow you to roam on anyways. So it's a Nextel signal or nothing at all.

One carrier, one digital network, No roaming period. That's quite limited and definately not good for emergencys. I'd honestly just like to see Nextel go away. I'd like 4 national carriers. They would be Verizon, Cingular, Sprint PCS, and T-Mobile.

 

My company formery had our wireless service with Nextel. The initial attractiveness for us was the free incoming (we use our cell phones as our primary business numbers) and the Direct Connect for me to talk to our field engineer easily.

After a year I can say it wasn't bad, but certainly wasn't good. First, we were told (by our Nextel sales person) that when National Direct Connect was added it would be free. Well it wasn't and neither the toll free help line or the local store would help us. Our salesrep told us "you must have misunderstood". If had been just me, maybe so, but my business partner was with me also.

Coverage was so/so. In and around interstates it was pretty good. Once we left the pavement in many areas we lost coverage. Call quality was spotty and we had quite a few dropped calls. Their email access was hit or miss, usually miss. I did like that the email/web access did not count against our minutes. I also liked the nationwide free nights and weekends.

When our renewal date was coming up, they did get pretty aggressive on trying to keep us. They offered us 200 more anytime minutes per line if we would renew, then offered us $50 towards new phones or credit to our account.

Overall, the experience with them was about a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10.

I would consider them only if:

I was located in a highly populated and well covered area by Nextel's network
You received a lot more calls than you make (use the free incoming)
Direct connect would help you (construction/projects etc)
You don't mind bulky phones
You travel to other well populated areas, and don't need good rural coverage

I find it hard to believe that so many people are actually changing to Nextel. That is a HUGE statement about the quality of wireless companies in general. To quote Vince Gill "everyone's looking for the next big thing".

Mike

 

Nope, he was not referring to Nextel. My point was that the consumer (in this case, me) is always looking for something better when it comes to wireless. In our case the next big thing was better coverage. It wasn't new or novel, but it was the next big thing to us.

3G clearly is the next big thing to wireless. I agree with you completely.

It is also my opinion that wireless customers are remarkably fickle. Although it may just be my perception, there seems to be much less brand loyalty with wireless service than say toothpaste or other consumer products. I might buy my Crest at WalMart to save $.25 cents per tube over Kroger's, but I still use Crest.

Wireless, on the other hand, does not tend to build the brand loyality. I'm sure the marketing folks at wireless companies struggle with this daily....and they try to differentate themselves from the crowd, i.e. Rollover with Cingular, Direct Connect with Nextel, In with Verizon, etc.

It's an interesting time to watch the wireless biz........

Mike