 | |
| Nextel | |
| Formerly | FleetCall (1987–1993) |
| Company type | Public |
| Nasdaq: NXTL | |
| Industry | Wireless communications |
| Founded | 1987; 39 years ago (1987) (as FleetCall) |
| Founders |
|
| Defunct | June 12, 2013; 12 years ago (2013-06-12) |
| Fate | Merged withSprint Corporation |
| Successor | Sprint Nextel |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | United States |
Key people | Morgan O'Brien, Chairman (1987–1995), Vice-Chairman (1995–2005) |
| Revenue | US$13.368 billion(2004) |
| US$3.283 billion(2004) | |
| US$3.000 billion(2004) | |
| Total assets | US$22.744 billion(2004) |
| Total equity | US$9.408 billion(2004) |
Number of employees | 19,000(2005) |
| Website | nextel.com at theWayback Machine (archived 2005-03-28) |
| Footnotes / references [1][2] | |
Nextel Communications, Inc. was an American wireless service operator that merged with and ceased to exist as a subsidiary ofSprint Corporation, which would later be bought byT-Mobile US and folded into that company. Nextel in Brazil, and formerly in Argentina, Chile, Peru, the Philippines, and Mexico,[3] is part ofNII Holdings, a stand-alone, publicly traded company not owned by Sprint Corporation.
Nextel Communications traces its roots to the 1987 foundation of FleetCall byMorgan O'Brien,Brian McAuley, Chris Rogers, and Peter Reinheimer. FleetCall changed its name to Nextel Communications, Inc. in 1993. Nextel provided digital, wireless communications services, originally focusing on the fleet and dispatch customers, but later marketed to all potential wireless customers. Nextel's network operated in the 800-MHzSpecialized Mobile Radio band and usediDEN technology developed by Motorola. Nextel's iDEN network offered a then unique push-to-talk "walkie-talkie" feature in addition to direct-dialed voice calls. Nextel was one of the first providers in the United States to offer a national digital cellular coverage footprint.
Prior to merging with Sprint Corporation in 2005, Nextel Communications, Inc. was a publicly traded company. Shares traded on theNASDAQ under the ticker symbolNXTL. Nextel was headquartered inReston, Virginia, United States.[2]
At the time of its 2005 merger with Sprint Corp., Nextel had over twenty million subscribers in the United States and served 198 of the top 200 markets. Nextel Communications, Inc. offered postpaid services under the Nextel brand and prepaid services under theBoost Mobile brand.
In late 2010, Sprint Nextel announced plans to decommission the Nextel iDEN network; on May 30, 2012, Sprint Nextel announced that it would shut down the Nextel network as early as June 2013.[4] The Nextel network was officially shut down at 12:01am on June 30, 2013, and Sprint began the process of deploying LTE equipment on the 800 MHz spectrum formerly used by the iDEN network.
Before the acquisition byT-Mobile US, Sprint Corporation continued to offer pre-paid services under the Boost Mobile brand and also offered push-to-talk services asSprint Direct Connect usingCDMA equipment.
Telecommunication lawyersMorgan E. O'Brien and Chris Rogers and investment bankersBrian McAuley and Peter Reinheimer foundedFleetCall in 1987.[5] FleetCall changed its name to Nextel Communications in 1993. In 1995, wireless industry pioneerCraig McCaw became a significant investor in the company. Other early investors and employees includeMark Warner, now a United States Senator from Virginia, andJack Markell, the former Governor of Delaware.
The founders chose the name "FleetCall" because the company's network used the 800 MHzSpecialized Mobile Radio frequencies designated by theFederal Communications Commission for use infleet dispatch. The core of the business model was to buy these fleet dispatch frequencies from existing operators at a substantial discount when compared to the cost for the equivalent bandwidth available via auction from the Federal Communications Commission. These "non-cellular" frequencies were made usable for a consumer and business wireless voice telephone service with theiDEN technology developed byMotorola, which some observers at the time said would not be practical. Initially, FleetCall did not want to include thepush to talk feature in their phones, but the FCC required it as the initial frequencies were licensed for dispatch use. Later, Nextel would use the push-to-talk feature as a key marketing advantage.
Nextel affected the cellular phone market in several ways. It was the first company to successfully provide unlimited calling plans to a large customer base. Nextel was the first company to implement a nationwide push-to-talk system similar to a walkie-talkie, marketed as DirectConnect. Unlike other cellular networks, the Nextel network operated in theSpecialized Mobile Radio band, and Nextel was one of the first providers in the United States to offer a national digital cellular coverage footprint. The company was the first in the United States to integrateglobal positioning system features into their phones and to complete their2G network upgrade.
Nextel was also an industry leader incustomer lifecycle management. They invested significantly in analytics capability, which allowed them to surpass their competitors in handling customer concerns effectively. The company also developed capabilities allowing it to assess and review customer relationship values objectively and to project and respond tocustomer loyalty. As a result of these efforts, and what was reported to be a strong focus on customer satisfaction across the organization, Nextel was known for industry-leadingcustomer retention rates,average revenue per user, andcustomer lifetime value.
Nextel had long worked closely with a single vendor,Motorola, on both equipment and standards. The close relationship had yielded theIntegrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) protocol, which uses atime-division multiple access (TDMA) technology. Some of the special features the company utilized included itspush-to-talk feature, which simulated thehalf-duplex operation of atwo-way radio. Nextel was one of the few carriers to have adoptediDEN around the world, although the technology has gained traction throughNII Holdings inLatin American countries. iDEN (Motorola) is also utilized in the Southeast of the United States bySouthernLINC Wireless and in Canada byTelus Mobility under theMike Mobile brand.
Nextel gained a significant marketing and technological advantage through its push-to-talk technology. In 2003,Verizon Wireless andSprint PCS each launched push-to-talk features, withCingular following in 2005. None have gained significant traction. Nextel and Verizon had entered a legal battle in June 2003 over Verizon's advertising for their push-to-talk feature. The companies reached a settlement in early 2004. Initial advertising for Verizon's service was heavy, but it became almost nonexistent fairly quickly, possibly due to poor reviews of the service.
The push-to-talk feature, with which Nextel has gained popularity, was made interoperable with theQChat technology on the Sprint network in 2008. Sprint had originally launched its own push-to-talk service, known asReadyLink, which is based onSIP. Due to the difference in technology, users of the ReadyLink service were never able to make or receive push-to-talk calls with users of the iDEN technology. By 2009, Sprint began phasing outQChat to again focus on marketingiDEN devices.
Nextel also offers a feature on some of their phones, marketed asDirectTalk. The technology uses the 900 MHzISM band and provides tenFHSS channels for an off-network push to talk communications between individual phones that are not necessarily in range of wireless towers.
In 2003, prior to its merger with Sprint, Nextel had announced plans for its next generation3G network. It was reportedly to use an extension to iDEN calledWiDEN, developed by Motorola. Nextel upgraded their network to support theWiDEN packet data protocol, increasing data speeds up to 90 kbit/s. The Motorola i850,i860,i870, and i880 were the only phones to support WiDEN without modification. In October 2005, in order to free up network capacity for cellular calls due to rebanding, Sprint removed the ability to connect to the WiDEN service from all Nextel towers.
Following the completion of theSprint-Nextel merger on August 12, 2005, future plans for Nextel included migrating customers to Sprint'sCDMA network.
After the merger, Sprint maintained the Nextel trademark as an unrelated group inFlorida not affiliated with Sprint filed two trademarks and opened its businesses under the Nextel name. Sprint has sued the group that alleges trademark infringement.[6]
Due to many underlying maintenance and life cycle issues within the legacy public safety systems of the United States, co-channel interference was a common occurrence within 800 MHz band. To resolve the problems, Nextel and the Federal Communications Commission developed a plan, approved by the FCC in August 2004, to relocate Nextel systems elsewhere in the 800 MHz band in order to reduce the potential for interference.[7]
Before rebanding, public safety organizations, business and industry organizations, andSMRs/ESMRs both operated in the 851-861 MHz range. ESMRs had exclusive use of the 861-866 MHz range, and public safety organizations had exclusive use of the 866-869 MHz range.
During the rebanding process, the following occurred:
After rebanding, public safety organizations and critical infrastructure institutions obtained the exclusive use of 851-854 MHz. ESMR systems (primarily Nextel) were given exclusive use of 862-869 MHz range, and public safety, business/industrial users, and low-power SMRs shared the 854-862 MHz spectrum. 860-861 MHz is designated as an "Expansion Band", and 861-862 MHz is designated as a "Guard Band". No licensees other than ESMR are required to relocate to channels above 860 MHz.
The use of contiguous spectrum allows for simple filters to be installed to protect public safety radio systems from interference, which is currently impossible under the existing mixed allocations in the 800 MHz band.
Nextel (Sprint) paid for much of the cost of this reconfiguration, but in compensation for lost 800 MHz spectrum, the company received spectrum in the 2 GHz band at 1910–1915/1990–1995 MHz. This spectrum was located near the existing Sprint PCS allocations and can be used to expand the number of channels available for that service, without needing to bid for additional capacity in a spectrum auction.[8][9][10]
On June 19, 2003, Nextel andNASCAR announced a sponsorship agreement to rename NASCAR's top racing series to the Nextel Cup Series beginning in 2004. Nextel replaced R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company cigarette brandWinston after it spent 33 seasons being NASCAR's Cup Series title sponsor. In 2008, however, the series was renamed theSprint Cup Series due to Sprint Nextel's plan to phase out the Nextel brand name; the name lasted until the end of the 2016 season. Nextel was also a major sponsor of the now defunctChampCar teamPacWest Racing, which was owned byCraig McCaw's brother Bruce.
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