Sprint Speculated To Be Thinking Of Offloading iDEN Network

Chris Ziegler over on Engadget is thinking that Sprint may be doing some serious thinking about offloading the iDEN network acquired from Nextel.

Say it ain't so.

I have a sneaking admiration for the iDEN network. Back a few years ago when Cingular (now AT&T) was on my ... back ... like flies on a ribroast to abandon my tri-mode, tri-band phone because it had TDMA and analog capabilities, I looked EVERYWHERE for a phone. I practically moved into the nearby Verizon and Cingular (now AT&T) stores trying to find something I thought might work.

Well, practically within walking distance of Camp Axinar at the time was a Sprint/Nextel store and I saw this one phone called the Motorola i355 that I REALLY thought was cool as all get out.

No, it didn't have any iPhone or Blackberry-type features - but it looked like a cell phone you could hammer nails with.

Now, I swear to God, before AT&T's 3G / WCDMA system came out, I swore up and down on a stack of Bibles that iDEN was the clearest signal of anything that was available at the time. Not only that, the Motorola i355 had an absolutely BOOMING speakerphone. I was very, VERY close to going with Sprint/Nextel as a matter of fact.

Actually I even developed quite an interest in Nextel's pre-paid counterpart Boost Mobile, which at that time had the slogan, "Where You At?" Wow ... an advertising slogan in Ebonics ... you can't beat that.

THEN I looked at the iDEN coverage map and started getting a little woozy.

I actually started digging all the way back to the old New York Times archives to try to figure out why the iDEN coverage footprint was so bad and why there was so much talk about bandwidth issues and I found out that Nextel didn't even start out as a cell phone company. They started out as a walkie-talkie company.

Commercial application.

5 second to maybe 2 minute walkie-talkie "bursts" instead of, for instance, the hours-long trivial chatter Mrs. Axinar has on a regular basis with her moms and her girlfriends.

I guess when Nextel decided to try to convert their system into something to compete with the cell phone vendors they really got in trouble.

So, it would be a little sad to see Sprint sell the iDEN network and have it possibly phased out.

Perhaps they would consider spinning it off or something of the sort under the "Boost" name.

I'm looking at the current Boost Mobile web site and I don't see any of the "Where It At?" stuff, but I do see a group of models who put me in mind of the women from the "Just $1.99/minute" they run during Star Trek: Remastered in the middle of the night on WCPO.

Interesting - you know - if the sultry blondes really DO come along with the Boost Mobile phones maybe Sprint SHOULD think long and hard about selling Nextel (oh my God that was a groaner even for me ...) :)

Related:
Sprint Shopping iDEN Network - PC Magazine

Can YOUR Cell Phone Carrier Run Opera Mini?

So as I have proceded in my research on the possibility of getting a new cell phone, I've decided I probably ought to concentrate on web browsing.

Now, back a couple of years ago, Cingular (now "AT&T Mobility") was really after me to relinquish my tri-mode, tri-band phone. Of course plans were in place for the analog and TDMA networks to go dark in February of 2008, but despite the fact that I had a phone with a PRIMARY GSM mode, they seemed downright upset I had a phone with TDMA and analog capabilities.

Of course back then there was something of a competition going on between Nate Livingston and myself to see if we could find the "Ultimate Mobile Blogging Appliance". Could one actually come up with something in the form factor of a cell phone that one could use to cover a City Council meeting or a Town Hall with Mean Jean Schmidt or something of the sort?

The short answer to that question is "No" - but you could get awfully close - even back then.

What I found was this little item called the Nokia 6682 that was just about to be discontinued at AT&T. That was cool because it let me grandfather my really cheap Spiderman I calling plan. However, those S.O.B.'s did eventually make me surrender the 100 text messages/month that came with that plan to pick up their $20/mo plan that had unlimited web and 200 text messages/mo. Now they've split up that plan - $15/mo. for unlimited web and $5/mo. for 200 text messages.

Well, along the way I decided it was really cool having an "open standards" phone. At first I could download Yahoo Go! 1.0 and actually have contact synchronization - oh ... and semi-push email. That was cool as all get-out. Of course the *ssh*les at Yahoo decided to discontinue the Yahoo Go! 1.0 software. The current Yahoo Go! application doesn't look very useful at all.

However, along the way I discovered a few other things that WERE quite useful - the Mobile GMail client and the Google Maps application to be sure, but, most importantly, Opera Mini.

Opera Mini ROCKS. It was out quite a while before the iPhone and pretty much only the iPhone and maybe the Motorola Q has ever come up with a half-way decent mobile surfing application.

So the Illustrious KenDiesel tells me last night that he has downloaded Opera Mini on his Sprint phone. I got all charged up. Sprint is on CDMA the same as Verizon. A little bit of digging seems to indicate that Sprint DOES have a semi-open network when it comes to J2ME apps and whatnot, but, apparently, despite a few news stories from a few months ago to the contrary, Verizon DOES NOT.

In fact, from what I have been able to figure out, they are running some sort of off-brand Qualcomm BREW platform that's not compatible with much.

In fact, I read that Opera went ahead and ported Opera Mini to BREW but Verizon still refused to certify it.

From what little I have been able to dig up, it also appears T-Mobile may or may not run Opera Mini.

Oh what a complicated mess this is turning into.

But, yes, for now I think I'm leaning towards staying on AT&T somehow.

I'm also REAL seriously starting to think about unlocked phones.

Anyone have any experience with unlocked 3G phones on AT&T?