Originally posted by: deftron
Why do they still use the different names?
And have different plans and phones?
They have only been the same company since August 18th (19th?), 2005.
They have different phones because PCS and iDEN are non-compatible technologies.
They no longer use different names; they became Sprint Nextel as of the date of their merger.
Originally posted by: Sphexi
Nextel uses a totally different system from Sprint. Sprint is still using PCS (CDMA), Nextel uses iDEN for their walkie-talkie features, which only Motorola makes phones for (since they came up with it), and only Nextel's network supports. So for now, they have to keep the two systems seperate, until they get around to adding iDEN to all of the Sprint towers, and figuring out how to get Motorola to let them use it on other manufacturer's phones.
You're implying that they will be moving to iDEN... that is not correct. Sprint Nextel is required to release much of the 800 MHz band that they are using to the FCC sometime in the next few years (2010, anyone?). I'm sure that the iDEN network will continue to exist for a *LONG* time, but from the people that I've talked to, they are planning on installing legacy Sprint (PCS) equipment on legacy Nextel (iDEN) towers, to provide better PCS coverage. I'm sure that iDEN will be installed on some PCS towers, but because iDEN is able to maintain a useable signal much farther than PCS, I cannot see why they would put iDEN on a lot of towers.
That said, there are talks of making a phone sometime in the coming years that will be able to utilize both PCS and iDEN. It wouldn't surprise me if it has already been done, and they just aren't going to release it for a while. I definitely want one of them, as soon as they're released.
