Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel's Frequency Two-Step

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2003 03:18:48 -0500

Nextel's Frequency Two-Step
Contributed by derek on Tues, Nov 4 2003

We have looked in the past at the story of how some of Nextel's spectrum
interferes with police, fire, and rescue radios, and how Nextel is
proposing a swap where it will free up the spectrum around 800MHz in
exchange for some spectrum at 1900MHz. Nextel has even offered to pay up
to $850M to re-tune emergency radios if the swap goes through. So why
would Nextel want to give up prime 850MHz spectrum for shorter-range
1900Mhz, and pay cash? Well, Nextel is also spectrum-constrained and
iDEN has no network evolution to 3G. Nextel has extended the life of
iDEN by installing a 2x vocoder to further compress voice traffic, but
will eventually need a valid 3G migration strategy. To that end, there
have been some quiet deals wherein Nextel has essentially chosen
Qualcomm CDMA2000 3G. Unfortunately, cheap US EV-DO or EV-DV handsets
will only be produced in volume for 1900MHz, so therein lies one motive
for swapping frequencies - cheaper 3G equipment. At 1900, they could
also access roaming with Sprint, Verizon, Alltel, or USCellular to fill
out their coverage.

www.techdirt.com