Nextel fading out?

One of my life rules, take any information that comes from someone that stands to financially benefit from your decision based off of said information with a very large grain of salt.

The people you want to talk to about coverage won't be found behind the counter in a store, they'll be on the same side as you... customers. Speak to to people that have the service you're interested in and ask them how it's actually working for them. Ask to use their phone in the area's you'll be using it most in. That's a test that will ensure your satisfaction with whatever carrier you choose.

Nextel is not forcing anyone to switch over to the Sprint network and won't be for some time. I would safely say if Nextel works well in your area don't hesitate to sign a contract as it won't be going away within three years. Hybrid phones were offered initially to customers in the most congested markets nationwide in an effort to offload voice traffic from the iDEN network and shift it to the CDMA one which has a much higher capacity. This phone was not mandatory to switch to and was primarily offered as a retention tool to customers unsatisfied with their service. The only tower related move Nextel has done with Sprint is to install Sprint equipment in many of the existing Nextel locations.

As for Verizon Wireless and Alltel, I don't see that happening anytime soon.

 

I personally dislike the hybrid phones because they do not offer 800MHz roaming. You should look into just getting a Sprint phone unless you really like the PTT. If you are interested in a PTT phone, Sprint is releasing an improved service soon so you could possibly avoid the Nextel side anyway. Sprint has very good coverage when you include the roaming coverage but the hybrid phones don't have 800MHz roaming so you miss out big time.

 

Being I have 1 of these Hybrid phones I can say what Bill Clinton is saying is true if you are in an area where 1900 is weak or has holes in it and this includes how roaming partners coverage is.
I have experienced it, but here in NJ I have more iDEN holes then CDMA ones.

You can go to the Sprint/Nextel web site & see a map of the Hybrid coverage and it can help you tell if your CDMA coverage will suffer, the PTT will still work in some of these areas due to the 850 being used for that.

I believe what I heard was 2014 for iDEN to be shut down & that keeps changing, if you like, need or want PTT you can go with the iDEN service, if you want both for service the Hybrid is a good choice for you if coverage is good.

As for the Verizon/Alltel merger, since Alltel was just bought by 2 private equity firms, I don't see that happening anytime soon. There is speculation they may break up parts of Alltels license area and I hope they don't do that, but work to become a National carrier.

 

Fire14 said to take to look at the coverage maps on the Sprint website and I agree completely. Also talk to friends in your area and see what carrier they are using and if they have been satisfied. As for the hybrid phones, if they had 800MHz CDMA I would buy one. In my area I run into places where I have 800MHz roaming off Verizon and that's it. Talk to friends about their service and check the coverage maps as Fire14 said.

 

I told you this in the other thread as well. But Alltel is the best carrier for coverage and most of the time price in west michigan. You are in Grand Rapids. The Sprint network is there is run by their affiliate that does a terrible job with the network and plans (IPCS). It's not technically run by Sprint.

Alltel is not going to be bought by Verizon. Nextel will shut off, but not for quite a few years now, a 2012-2014 figure sounds about right. Although it's network quality has degraded here in Michigan, Sprint is expanding it in some areas, at least that is what I've been told.

 

i was told by a sprint employee that when sprint bought nextel they stopped putting money in nextel towers

 

When Nextel and Sprint merged together, their website said that they would be phasing out Nextel's network in 2010, which would be in three years. If you look at what Sprint seems to be doing on their website, you will notice that they are adding cites to all the spots that there are Nextel towers in preparation for the 2010 shutdown of Nextel's network. The only thing that Sprint can't do is add panels to it's Nextel towers that are in it's affiliate's territory, like where I live. (iPCS)
I used to have Nextel and all I have to say about them is negative things anyways. Coverage, where and when I had it, was horrible and degrading even if the tower was new. iDEN is such an old technology. It's like putting up a brand new analog tower or TDMA tower. Totally pointless. If I were you, and Sprint begins adding panels to it's Nextel towers or even if you currently have Sprint coverage, I would look into Sprint before I ever went to Nextel!!!!!!!!!!!! CDMA voice and data quality will definitely be a much better choice for you then iDEN will ever be!!!! Point blank and period. (Even if it is iPCS or any other Sprint affilliate)

 

Sprint did add some Nextel sites even though the network is going to be phased out. I am guessing it was for network capacity issues because most of the new Nextel sites were in cities. It would be nice if Sprint could sell the iDEN network after they paid for it and then put some money into patching it up.

Sprint is expanding their network all the time. iDEN is old and there is not another nationwide iDEN you can roam off when Nextel doesn't have service.

A Sprint plan with roaming included won't leave you much to complain about. Another post had a great list of phones that will launch on Sprint by the end of this year so just another thing to keep in mind.

 

That is totally incorrect. In fact in the 12 months or so right after the merger they were investing heavily into the IDEN Nextel network.

 

As mentioned a few times before these hybrid phones cannot have 800 Mhz CDMA capabilities because it would cause interference with the 800 IDEN band.

 

If you just look on-line on Sprint's website and look at their coverage maps, you'll see that they are adding Nextel towers. If you click on "Added in the past 90 days" or "Coming in the next 120 days" you can see that they are still adding towers.
Even though it really doesn't make sense to invest heavily into the old iDEN network which they will be just shutting down in a couple years, they are. I guess it will satisfy the die-hard Nextel users.

 

All the sites you see still being added are ones that have been in the works for several years. I doubt we'll see any new iDEN sites after this year.

In my area, by this time last year they had added roughly ten sites. This year they've added one and I hear there MIGHT be a second one by the end of the year.

 

All iDEN new builds in North Western Michigan have been scrapped according to the techs up here. Last couple of years they upgraded their tiny 8X8 omni sites to full size building and have hung brand new panels and sectorized towers.

I wonder what they will do with the NEXTEL towers after iDEN here. NEXTEL cant offer Sprint service because of IPCS.

Sprint need to buy IPCS and call it a day.

 

We can only hope it happens. I'd love to see iPCS disappear.

 

I really don't think Sprint will shut down the Nextel Network.... they will sell it or... let the government take it over to use as an nation wide public saftey network. Public safety could occupy the lower end of the 800 band.
Alot of public safety agencies around the country use Nextel as another means of communication beween them selves, or as a backup for thier radio systems. Right now agencies use Nextel for passing info that doesn't need to be shared on thier radio system or the IM they have on the laptops.
I beleive Nextel (Sprint) has a contract with Motorola for equipment etc. through 2012.

But the way the telecomm business is anything could happen.......

 

what will happen to the prepaid boost service when they do phase out the iden

 

They will get the Boost customers off Boost long before they shut down the network. Maybe some of them will go with QChat. Sprint isn't going to start flipping switches and shut down the network in one day without warning and while millions of customers are still using it.

 

The rumor is they will keep it going till 2014.

As for the public Safety agencies, yes they are very helpful in using especially when you don't want something said over the radio, we do have a few digital channels we use that are scrambled but I know when we go outside our town the reception goes downhill & the DC helps a lot.

The biggest problem though is they are unreliable around here, busy network, no coverage ect... we recently went to the buzz & that has helped a lot but we are using the phone service vs DC so to me if that works better, why bother using DC after the network is setup to be shutdown? I think their new DC will be interesting to see how well it works compaired to the Nextel service & if it's as fast or close, like AT&T's is, they will be fine.

I also think the new spectrum sale for the 700 Mhz is going to take the Goverment out of buying the old Nextel DC system, but I guess we will see what happens, since the biggest drawback to the DC in emergencies is lack of everyone hearing what needs to be heard during transmissions.

I guess we will find out in 7 years.

 

Larry - I think he meant 850 "cellular" roaming. The lack of 850 MHz roaming capability on the hybrid phones is their big weakness. 800 MHz (remanded SMR channels) CDMA support, as we have debated many times, is another matter as to if/when we will see it.

Personlly, I wishh Sprint had a more agressive plan to migrate people off of iDEN. Ideally, they would already be selling iDEN/CDMA dual mode phones that do 800 iDEN, 850/1900 CDMA, and are also capable (with a firmware update) of doing 800 Mhz CDMA when the time is right. That way they could get speedily execute a transition off of iDEN almost overnight once they got enough phones out in the market.

 

Larry is referring to cellular roaming. The powersource phones are unable to have both 800iDEN, 800Cellular and 1900PCS in one unit. There were issues getting both the iDEN phone and cellular parts in the same small form factor without interference issues. Because of that they went with just the 800iDEN and 1900PCS. From what I've heard the phone will roam just fine on any 1900 roaming partner.

 

That just seems odd to me.

 

....Care to elaborate?

People want the phones to be small and compact yet complain when all the features aren't there. In the cell phone form factor there was no way to electronically isolate an 800iden radio setup from the 800 cellular one.

 

I am hearing you, I just am suprised by this. You'd think they could come up with a solution to allow the transmitters to coexist. After all, they can do it for 850./1900 CDMA and 900/1800 GSM in the same unit, so it seems weird to me they cannot do it for iDEN and CDMA.

Is this a physical fit problem?

Or Is the problem related to needing to broadcast (stying connected to newtork) at the same time on both iDEN for PTT and 850 CDMA for voice? If so, then youd' think they could have figured out a timing mechanism to alternate betweeen the two.

 

800-1900 and 900-1800 is a lot of "vertical" frequency separation.

Basically they'd have to shutdown the iDEN radio if you ever went onto 800 roaming which would defeat the purpose of having such a phone.

 

Not at all. Let the customer decide. Perhaps he would prefer to be able to roam 800 CDMA even if that means no IDEN at the same time. Simply place 2 roaming options in the phone: one for Automatic - no 800 MHHZ CDMA romain support, and another that's Automatic - no IDEN if roaming 800 MHZ. Customer has control. Sprint sells more Powersource phones. Done.

 

It's not that simple, the iDEN network is still broadcasting and searching for mobiles all the time. One of the reasons Nextel was getting off the 800Mhz spectrum to move to 1900Mhz is due to interference. You would have to build a filter too filter out the iDEN frequencies as stated above the phone would be huge

 

Ummm.... I guess I'll rephrase that. It's simply not capable, with today's technology and expected price point, to build this in the cell phone form factor.

 

Oops, I meant 850 "cellular" roaming, not 800 SMR channels using CDMA - that's another topic altogether!

Enough said I guess for now.

 

Sorry to beat a dead horse here. But...Nextel here is still growing there have been a few new towers that have been put up for Nextel. In fact in Salt Lake City they just put a flagpole tower up just for nextel. This to me is still showing that they do in fact care about Nextel and that it is not going away to soon.