Sprint Sets Nextel's Death Date, Toys With LTE

Sprint will pull the plug on the once much beloved, but now essentially zombified Nextel iDEN network in 2017 as part of a complete overhaul of the carrier's many networks, Sprint's Steve Elfman, president of network and wholesale, said Monday.

The Nextel termination comes as part of Sprint's new "Network Vision" initiative, which Elfman called "a multi-year initiative to enhance voice and data services".

Sprint currently has three different networks and technologies, each with their own sets of cell towers: Nextel's old 800-MHz iDEN system, Sprint's 1900-MHz CDMA and Clearwire's 2500-MHz WiMAX.

Network Vision tries to integrate those three networks into one, merging base stations into multi-mode devices and eliminating a lot of redundant towers. Sprint will attempt to introduce CDMA-based phones with speedy push-to-talk in 2011. They can then start phasing out iDEN in 2013, re-using the spectrum to improve the quality of their CDMA signal inside buildings. (The lower-frequency iDEN spectrum is very good for penetrating walls.)

Nextel's iDEN system is currently sold under the Sprint and Boost brands. It has a faithful following for its super-fast push-to-talk function, but the network's glacially slow data speeds have made it unappealing in a more Internet-centric world. The network hasn't been upgraded in years.

Phasing out iDEN and consolidating cell sites will save Sprint a lot of money. The company says it will net $10 billion to $11 billion in savings over the next seven years, with 35 to 40 percent of that coming from ditching iDEN.

"The savings will start to phase in in 2012," Elfman said.

Elfman also had mixed messages about 4G technologies. While Elfman confirmed that "our 4G strategy [is] WiMAX with Clearwire," he also said the carrier may explore adding LTE on the old Nextel spectrum.

"What we are buying is CDMA at 800 and 1900," Elfman said. "Inherent in both of those frequency bands comes LTE at the radio head, so if we choose to deploy LTE to really call it the next revision of CDMA and use LTE, we can."

About Our Expert

Sascha Segan

Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

My Experience

I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also wrote a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsessed about phones and networks.

My Areas of Expertise

US and Canadian mobile networks
Mobile phones released in the US
iPads, Android tablets, and ebook readers
Mobile hotspots
Big data features such as Fastest Mobile Networks and Best Work-From-Home Cities

The Technology I Use

Being cross-platform is critical for someone in my position. In the US, the mobile world is split pretty cleanly between iOS and Android. So I think it's really important to have Apple, Android and Windows devices all in my daily orbit.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 for work and a 2021 Apple MacBook Pro for personal use. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, although I'm probably going to move to an Android foldable. Most of my writing is either in Microsoft OneNote or a free notepad app called Notepad++. Number crunching, which I do often for those big data stories, is via Microsoft Excel, DataGrip for MySQL, and Tableau.

In terms of apps and cloud services, I use both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive heavily, although I also have iCloud because of the three Macs and three iPads in our house. I subscribe to way too many streaming services.

My primary tablet is a 12.9-inch, 2020-model Apple iPad Pro. When I want to read a book, I've got a 2018-model flat-front Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. My home smart speakers run Google Home, and I watch a TCL Roku TV. And Verizon Fios keeps me connected at home.

My first computer was an Atari 800 and my first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. I still have very fond feelings about both of them.

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