iDEN is not Dead

Scribbled by Sven L.L. Rafferty

With the merger of two incompatible cellular networks, many are guessing that Nextel’s iDEN will lose out to Sprint’s more popular CDMA. Well Motorola, the key maker of Nextel phones, is saying not so. Along with Nextel, they confirmed there will be a iDEN future and to prove it, the first Bluetooth Nextel phone is on the way. Motorola’s i605 was easily spotted on the FCC’s website showing a large LCD screen on a candy bar-style phone. You can expect speakerphone, voice dialing, GPS, and Java as some of the features.

Nextel CEO Timothy Donahue told the media early this week that Motorola is making a dual-band phones to work on both WiDEN and CDMA networks. Similar to some current CDMA phones that also have AMPS support for analog voice, the new Motorola’s will be able to handle this awkward technology marriage in about 12 months. So it looks like you’ll be able to talk to Pete on his LG Sprint phone and Tommy on his Motorola Nextel phone. Think of yourself as the bridge between two worlds. :)

My opinion is like AMPS, it won’t last long. While this merger is an equal one with no one company buying the other out, I see Spring pulling a little more stings…or pricking the board members with needles to get their way. Push-to-Talk (P2T) is a great feature, it is also a feature being tested in the CDMA world already and it will only be a matter of time before iDEN’s time is up, beep-beep.