What's Next For Nextel?

If you read stories about Nextel here (or elsewhere) on a regular basis, none of this Washington Post profile will be that surprising, but it's a good overview of where Nextel is going, and what makes them tick. Unfortunately, it perpetuates the myth that Nextel became so successful (and has such high ARPUs) because they have push-to-talk. What Nextel did wasn't "get lucky with PTT", but figure out how to use PTT to find a niche where they could leverage the difference for both higher revenue and customer loyalty. It was a concerted effort by the company to focus on the right customers for that product -- which explains (in part) why PTT hasn't been a huge success for other vendors. Notice that, despite all the hype last year, others offering PTT have pretty much stopped publicly mentioning it? Meanwhile, the article also discusses Nextel's work with Flarion, and how rigorous they've been in testing Flarion's technology. They also note that Flarion still doesn't have a contract with Nextel (who is also testing a number of other, competing, wireless broadband technologies). The article also looks at the love-hate relationship Nextel has with Motorola, and how they're hoping to keep more up-to-date with phone styles -- one area where they've lagged.

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