Why is nextel shutting down

The system was still renowned for push-to-talk, but it fell behind on speed as 3G and then 4G technologies matured. In May , Sprint finally announced that the system would shut down in June this year. As part of an overhaul of its complicated collection of network technologies, called Network Vision, Sprint will reuse the MHz spectrum from iDEN to bolster other services.

Since the announcement last year, Sprint has been alerting Nextel subscribers of the shutdown and working to convert them into Sprint customers. As of the end of the first quarter in March, the company reported it still had 1. Though the iDEN network has already been thinned out as part of Network Vision, it's still a working national network until the shutdown begins on Sunday, Bonavia said.

He was not able to estimate how many cell sites need to be shut down. The gear can't be reused, but it will be recycled, Bonavia said. Also heading for the scrap heap is Nextel's name, which Sprint plans to remove from its corporate moniker following its merger with SoftBank, which is expected to close early next month.

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They worked with Congress and the FCC hard, and they made it happen — they became a player. For years, Nextel led the industry in customer loyalty and average revenue per user ARPU before mobile data became a primary driver of wireless revenues. But there were complicating issues. Public-safety agencies complained that Nextel signals interfered with their mission-critical communications in the MHz band, and the carrier had no clear path to compete in a data-driven market that required contiguous spectrum.

Both of these issues were addressed by the FCC order to reband the MHz spectrum, leaving Nextel with contiguous spectrum in the MHz band and in the 1. From the outside, the merger looked like a disaster for Sprint. Time will tell whether investing in Clearwire was the best use of the 2. What is clear is that the Nextel spectrum will play a big role in the future of Sprint. Also clear is the fact that the Nextel name no longer is part of Sprint, and that the highest-profile iDEN network has been retired forever.

Urgent Matters. Sprint recently shut down the former Nextel iDEN network, which played a significant role in the evolution of commercial communications in the United States. Written by Donny Jackson 8th July In August , the Wiz team revealed […]. Mainframe training and development are helping local government fill their IT ranks.