wmdubois

I just returned from a Radio shack store in Utah, and the salesman told me that Nextel is going out of business in the next couple of years. He said that Verizon's new push to talk feature was making it unneccesary for people to choose nextel and that they had announced that they are going out of business 2005-6????? Does any of the above information makes sense??? Let me know if you've heard of anything. thanks

ray

It seems that everybody is rolling out with phones that have "walkie-talkie" style functionality. Sprint has them now. Verizon has them. Nextel caters to businesses and professionals who need a more reliable service and don't think about the cost. Since their phones run off satellites, they will rarely lose a 'signal' or have any dropped calls. Also, Nextel phones work pretty much everywhere from what I've read and heard.

An employee at a Radio Shack store that says Nextel will be going out of business in the "next couple years" is basically making an uneducated and/or misinformed statement. The guy is a moron.

ski

Nextel phones run off towers as well. I know this because for whatever reason (I don't have the technical knowledge to know this yet), they interfere with our public safety radio systems for work.

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chadlnc

Yeah, they run off towers and I got signal no where. That is why our company switched, we didn't get signal if we were indoors or not in a major city or on an interstate. The dropped call rate was awful. Much happier with Verizon now.

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look_ma

It is all about your area as far as signal goes with a carrier. And if the farking guy from radioshack really knew this information, I think more than just him would know this. And since he was probably trying to sell a verizon phone/service makes the information all the more "reliable". Just because verizon now has push to talk does not knock Nextel out of business. That is like saying the new Nissan truck has all the same features as a Ford F-150, therefore Ford is going out of business (just an example, not even a true one). NO. all this means is that Nextel has a little more competition, lodifreakingda. If I were you, I would go back to radio shack and find out who that salesperson was and talk to his manager. Sales people are not allowed to make stuff up to sell a product (unless you are bestbuy), and if I am not mistaken radio shack sells Motorola phones, which can run on the Nextel network which he is trying to say that a product radio shack sells is a bad product. Anyway have a talk to his manager.

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nickel

just a little thread hijack, but i have to say look_ma once again your sig rocks

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look_ma

Thanks nickelback, I was reading that one bestbuy deal ($5 xbox) and about hit the roof i was so pissed off. I found that my sig is the best place to rant.

whitak24

nextel runs off towers, not satellites. however, they are on a proprietary network (similar to sprint's PCS network). this means you only get coverage in areas where they have put up towers. this used to be pretty limited, but they have invested heavily in network expansion over the past couple years.

of course, if nextel went out of business and i never had to see obnoxious sobs walking around stores shouting into their damn nextels and beeping away, i would be a happy man.

cheapie

ever used the ptt feature on a verizon or sprint phone? it's a lot slower than nextel's.

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whitak24

can someone explain to me why the PTT feature is so wonderful? i guess i just don't get it. if your phone is connected to a tower and the phone of the person you want to reach is also connected to a tower, how is it really more efficient to push a button and tone them to get ahold of them instead of just speed-dialing their number so they can answer?

this is an honest question here. i just don't understand why everyone sees this as a big advantage.

cheapie

it's great for those, hey, where are you conversations. you just push the button and wait for them to respond. you don't have to wait for it to dial and sit there with the phone up to your ear.

Hopper1

I have one for work. And the only advantage is the instantaneous response. I work for a heavy civil contractor and being able to get ahold of foremen or anyone in the company without having to dial and wait for an answer is invaluable. It's better than an actual walkie talkie since they can be anywhere in the country almost and you can talk to them. Also we don't get charged for airtime minutes when using PTT.

It's kinda nice having it for the couple of friends that I have that also have nextel but I wouldn't go out and buy one for personal use.

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Jihforce

yeah, you just get charged PTT minutes.
and yes, not worth it for personal use. it gets expensive.
But their unlimited incoming calls plans is pretty cool if you people call you a lot.

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Hopper1

actually as a company we don't get charged for PTT minutes. when i look up plans for my area, only 5 have limited direct connect minutes. I don't know about how they do corporate plans but i know because of our buying power and the size of the national company( www.oldcastlmaterials.com ) we do not get charged PTT minutes.

ole~gray

omfg...SATELLITES!!!!???? they use cell cites like every other carrier, and they have fewer than many, which means they don't work pretty much everywhere.

as far as them going out of business they have higher than industry average revenue per subscriber and lifetime revenue per subscriber that pretty much translates into tons of revenue, which they use to pay off their ever shrinking debt. they're not going anywhere.