Sprint Nextel network/tower merger

And based on that... look at what areas have great coverage and which have very little.

 

I must admit that I will be following this closely. I am both a Nextel and Sprint PCS user and Nextel coverage in my immediate area (50 mile radius or so) is MUCH greater than Sprint PCS, this has had me concerned since the merger. I love them both equally for their own reasons and I'm loyal to Nextel, but will leave if I lose the level of coverage I have now.

What do they plan to do in these areas?

It'll definately be interesting to see what happens...

 

Sprint and Nextel coverage in my area is about the same. Sprint even has them beat in some areas.

 

In town Sprint is about the same - but once I leave my hometown and head anywhere else, in between most of the time I don't have service, and on the rare ocasion I do its roaming on Alltel which doesn't allow me to use internet or features like that. Throughout my entire county I have mostly full service from Nextel (even in the middle of corn fields when we go tractor tipping :lmao: ).

Hopefully they'll fix that though - I know that (just from seeing all the phones people have) this must be a very strong area for Nextel, all but two of my friends have Nextel and almost everyone you see has it as well.

 

They will continue to support two networks as both are profitable. What they are going to try and do is expand and merge the network withen existing facilities. Several locations are side by side and to cut down on the ground space will save them a few bucks a month.

 

That is where the big technical challenge comes in to try and combine 2 RAN's operating on different underlying technologies, not just different frequencies.

And if noone has figured it out...the Sprint 4G-WiMax announcement is no surprise given the poor outlook for Moto on the network side given the rumors of Sprint moving forward either without iDen or with a different vendor (The exclusivity with Nextel is over for Moto). Plus, with Moto's latest acquisitions, they are trying to get out in front of Mobile WiMax and invariably will be using the typical OEM financial offerings to carriers to keep their market share with Sprint/Nextel.

That is my opinion, anyway.

 

From what I understand their 800 Mhz does not really give a greater signal distance due their IDEN technology. So their tower spacing is actually closer to how a CDMA 1900 Mhz network is set up.

 

The land owner may not mind, but the municipalities will. Drop and swaps are not always a by right zoning approval.

 

1) Revenue capture (permitting and review process)
2) If it is an older structure, probably grandfathered under older regulations, this is the chance to bring it up to code (so to speak). They get to review under what is most likely newer more stringent regulations.

 

Sprint won't start to reduce iDen network until QChat PTT is released, which will eventually replace iDen PTT. EVDO Rev A needs to be completely rolled out before that happens, which is planned by the end of next year. This Fall, CDMA/iDen phones will be released to begin the transition from iDen to CDMA. By 2007/8, I'm guessing there will be no more iDen-only phones for sale. By 2010, Sprint may begin shutting down iDen.

 

http://www.qualcomm.com/press/releases/2003/030522_qchat_2secsetup.html

It is Qualcomm's new CDMA PTT offering.

 

It may take a while to get rid of ReadyLink since there is a user base out there. But QChat is much better, more comparable to iDen PTT and perhaps way mo betta. It needs the low latency and better uplink speed of EVDO Rev A though so won't appear until next year or so.