Boost safe: Sprint hangs onto iDEN network
October 31, 2008/
Boost Mobile, Sprint’s prepaid arm, operates primarily on the iDEN network. You’ll hear on an upcoming edition of the Prepaid Podcast that Boost plans to make better use of the iDEN network in the future. As of yesterday, we know that it will be under the Sprint umbrella. CEO Dan Hesse has said that the company does not plan to sell the network. In fact, they actually have plans to expand it.
“The iDEN network is a key differentiator for Sprint, as it allows us to offer products and services no other carrier in the industry can match. We continue to build on our support for our industry-leading push-to-talk Nextel Direct Connect franchise through our aggressive marketing efforts which exploit the unique features and functionality of the iDEN network,” Hesse said in a statement. “In 2008, we expanded our product portfolio with a new line of Sprint phones, which combine industry-leading push-to-talk with the ultra-fast speed of Sprint Mobile Broadband (EV-DO Rev. A) and Sprint’s largest voice coverage, offering greater choice and flexibility to our customers. We are focusing on plans to continue our push-to-talk leadership and bring more innovation to our customers going forward.”So does this mean Sprint didn’t find a buyer? Or that they truly understand what they can do with iDEN? Who knows at this point. What we do know, though, is that Boost will continue to operate under Sprint. How does everyone feel about that?]]>
Posted in Boost Mobile
Sprint sucked before Nextel and now Nextel is bad only because of Sprint. Nextel wasnt bitched about for all the data, email, TV (LOL TV???) and more until Sprint came along. Sprint sell cheap made handsets. Motorola makes great iDEN handsets. iDEN is a nationwide walkie talkie. If you need other shit get it. Sprint is not broke because of Nextel and maybe needs money. who knows. If iDEN was only worth 7.8 billion and folding it would be sold already. No way has Nextel went from 38 billion to 7 billion with only losing 1 million customers (reason for that = Sprint only). Motorola should buy their network and be done with it and do it themselves because until the FCC shit about inteference with local shit which is also 90% motorola there were no dropped calls in a Nextel area. Sprint got them and shit has been wack ever since. Maybe a conspiracy for the government to close nextel or a way for sprint to claim unreal losses. I bet Sprint is voting for obama.
Hey Joe, thank you for posting this article. My name is BJ DeHut and I am a representative for Sprint. We have decided to retain our iDEN network because we looked at every option and determined that the network and the push-to-talk business is a valuable asset to our full component of wireless products and services. The original Telephony article that this posting references as a source quotes an analyst suggesting that PTT isn’t a differentiator because of the availability of cheap talk plans and texting. Rescue workers can’t stop to text. Construction workers can’t stop to text. PTT will always be of value, and despite what the same analyst suggested to Telephony — yes, there are new services existing and coming for PTT users. We currently offer and are developing Push-to-X services that provide a new generation of split second communication on both the iDEN and our CDMA networks. Yes, Sprint had some rocky times with iDEN after the Sprint Nextel merger, but the network is operating at the best metrics in its history, and we are not going to give an inch to our competitors.