Zac Bowling’s Blog

Sprint, Nextel merger to close gap with larger rivals - Dec. 15, 2004

This is where I can really have a good opinion. I work as a 3rd party application developer for Nextel based solutions and I’m a indirect dealer for Nextel. So what do I think? I don’t know.

The merger between AT&T Wireless and Cingular was a good one. They both use the same technology. Sprint and Nextel is a little bit scarier. Nextel uses the iDEN protocol, which is an old two way technology that Motorola designed in the early 90s and uses the 800-900mhz band. Sprint uses PCS technology which runs in the 2.1-2.5ghz band (depending on if you have a dual band, first gen, or second gen phone). Nextel also can only purchase phones from Motorola since Motorola owns all the patents on iDEN protocol.

Nextel has been feeling the burn of no competition over their protocol from multiple venders. I has been hurting them. Phones from Nextel cost four times more then similar GSM phones and Motorola not being pressured by competition has been long on development. Nextel just now got a camera phone.

Nextel hated it so they even tried to merge with Motorola but where shot down because of other iDEN carriers in Canada, Brazil, and other countries thought it would be to much of a competition issue.

Nextel has been stuck as Motorola’s b**ch for a long time and they hate staying there. They even went out and did some illegal messing with their signal in the 800-900mhz band to force the government to give them a band in the 2.4ghz range so they could use the more industry wide GSM protocols and buy phones from more manufactures. Traditionally 800-900mhz was used for private radio operators, but now mostly used by Nextel and emergency services systems. Nextel fiddled with the filters on their towers so their customers would overlap over the emergency service bands and cause interference. That is why the FCC didn’t want any cell phone carriers in that band but since Nextel evolved into cell phones they let them stay. The government gave Nextel a few 2.4 ghz bands in some cities but not anything near what they need to cover the US like their ~800 mhz bands did.

Nextel in a bind and the merge between AT&T and Cingular being such a big pressing deal, they went out in search of a partner to help them coupe. Here comes Sprint to the rescue. With the value of both companies about the same and good overlapping coverage areas, it was a good choice.

What’s the problem? Incompatible protocols. You can’t “dual band” over iDEN and PCS. You would need chips in the phone to handle both protocols. iDEN is completely different from PCS. They will need to choose which protocol is best or they will have a big engineering feat to overcome. Its going to be interesting.

The funny part about all of this is my position. I write GPS tracking software for Nextel phones. Remember back in the 90s when all the E911 laws were being passed? Well one rule said that any cell phone sold by 2005 must be able to be located if that phone goes into emergency mode (someone dials 911). This was something the GSM carriers could solve by doing tower locates and triangulation. For Nextel this wasn’t really possible. Remember how I told you that GSM and PCS run between 2.1 and 2.5 ghz? Well the 2.1 to 2.5ghz bands suck on distance and doesn’t pass through walls very easily, so the carriers have to put lots of towers within just a few miles of each other. Nextel runs in 800-900mhz. This is awesome for distance and passing through almost anything, so Nextel only had to put up a fraction of the towers that the other guys did. This makes triangulation an issue.

So what did Nextel do? They had Motorola install a GPS chip in every phone. This little change was huge for people like me. I can write software that runs on these phones to relay the current position of the phone back all through-out the day.

These means I’m waiting to see Nextel’s next move. Will they still keep the commitment to allow tracking on the up and coming PCS/iDEN hybrid models?

oh me oh my.

– UPDATE –

I just read this from the press release:
“Robust Network Capabilities

Sprint Nextel will have a clear technology migration path and valuable and extensive network and spectrum assets. The new company will have robust wireless network capabilities, including Nextel’s current nationwide 800MHz/iDEN network, Sprint’s national 1.9GHz/CDMA network and Sprint’s nationwide deployment of wireless EV-DO. Sprint Nextel’s plans include migrating over time Nextel services, including push to talk service, to Sprint’s CDMA EV-DO network. Sprint Nextel will have the capability to deploy new services on the two companies’ 2.5GHz combined spectrum holdings that together cover 85 percent of the households in the top 100 markets. Sprint Nextel will also utilize Sprint’s nationwide fiber optic wireline network which extends to 60 metropolitan networks and 37 international fiber points of presence. These combined capabilities are expected to make Sprint Nextel a key partner for the largest content providers, systems integrators, mobile virtual network operators and other new telecommunications entrants to jointly offer the full portfolio of consumer services – voice, data, video, wireline, and wireless – and customized enterprise applications and integrated solutions for business. ”

Thought it was good.

Tags: Personal

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 15th, 2004 at 1:01 pm and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.