Sprint Close to Buying Nextel 256
NateDawg writes "After the recent merger of AT&T and Cingular, it looks like Sprint is close to buying out Nextel. According to CNet, the different networks could bring expensive problems, but that could be overcome by the diversity of the company's clients. Nextel has many corporate clients, while Sprint appeals to families and teens."
I don't know how it is in the rest of the world... (Score:5, Interesting)
Things always tend to change after a company is bought; i hope they stay doing good.
Nextel and the art of communication (Score:2, Interesting)
More on this here [adl.org]
Re:We'll see ... (Score:4, Interesting)
If they want to act as one, they'll have to pick a technology and run with it.
This merger is just a me-too because of Cingular/ATT
Re:Buiing companies to grow (Score:4, Interesting)
When the Bell Atlantic/GTE/AirTouch/PrimeCo merger was announced, it made lots of sense.
For the most part, the technology was the same, and there was little coverage overlap. They basically took 4 companies -- a Northeast, South, West, and Southwest company, and made them one.
Cingular/ATT is all overlap, but at least similar technology.
Nextel/Sprint is even worse..... It's all overlap, and completely different technologies.
Re:Buiing companies to grow (Score:1, Interesting)
Nextel's spectrum only useable by IDEN tech? (Score:2, Interesting)
The 800Mhz frequencies Nextel uses are the leftovers from the SMR group with channel spacing of 25Khz and are shared with Public Safety and Heavy Industrial (like utilities). It's not a clean contiguous block of spectrum like the PCS carriers have.
This must be a consolidation of companies for other reasons...
Sprint will destroy Nextel (Score:2, Interesting)
Nextel, on the other hand . . . Best I can tell, Nextel's service has it all over everybody, bar none. They offer network features no-one else can even come close to, and I don't just mean the walkie-talkie thing. Their services and features are actually interesting, useful, and well documented! Almost everyone I know who uses Nextel just loves them. The only shortcoming I've ever even heard of is modest geographical coverage, which, sadly, was the show-stopper for me. So now Nextel's merging with Sprint. What a disaster for Nextel. Both the differences in their technology and the fact this is a merger not a buyout will prevent Nextel from fixing Sprint, unlike Cingular with AT&T Wireless. (The latter really stank; trust me on this.) Sprint's grasping incompetence will suffuse Nextel like red dye bleeding through the laundry, and where we had a big clumsy company and a smaller, really good one, there'll just be one really big, rather poor one. What a shame.
Re:We'll see ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Nextel caters to self absorbed individuals who think 'getting their work done' is so importatnt that they can walkie talkie their converstation anywhere and everywhere. Blasting their two-way conversation to everyone in the area. Even when they are driving alone, you'll pass them as they drive 10 miles under the speed limit in the fast lane hunchbacked over the steering wheel conversing with their Nextel walkie-talkie. I put Nextel users who behave this wasy one step above SPAMMERS and smokers.
Nextel, NASCAR? (Score:2, Interesting)
Trevor
NYT had an interesting tidbit on this - (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:As a sprint user... (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, minutes for 2 way come from a pool shared by all phones on the plan, usually. People tend to use 2 way because their boss (who likely pays for their phone) doesn't see who's using 2 way on the bill, but if you call someone using the cell phone it shows up itemized on the bill and he'll say "who the hell were you talking to for 65 minutes during work that day?"