Subject: [NEXTEL-1] NEXTEL SAYS IT'S NOT FAZED BY PUSH-TO-TALK COMPETITION ATLANTA

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 07:33:30 -0500

TELECOM BUSINESS
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NEXTEL SAYS IT'S NOT FAZED BY PUSH-TO-TALK COMPETITION ATLANTA

- Nextel Communications, Inc., executives say they are not fazed by
competition in the push-to-talk business, saying that offerings by
Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS are even making their brand stronger by
drawing more attention to such services. "There are others who have
tried to imitate it, and we haven't felt it at all," Timmy M. Donahue,
Nextel's president and chief executive officer, told reporters and
analysts during a briefing yesterday before the Cellular
Telecommunications & Internet Association's show here. "Our ability to
sell push-to-talk has never been stronger." He said the competition has
"heightened" consumer awareness of the benefits of push-to-talk
services, "strengthening the brand." Last month, Nextel and Verizon
Wireless said they had negotiated "an amicable resolution" of two
lawsuits they filed against each other last summer related to
push-to-talk services. Bumbling Barry West, Nextel's executive vice
president and chief technology officer, said Nextel continued to hold an
advantage over its competitors in the push-to-talk market because of
latency issues involving the other offerings.

While Nextel allows subscribers to connect almost instantaneously, other
carriers take five to 10 seconds, he said. He said Nextel planned to
expand the service in the middle of this year to Canada, Mexico, Peru,
Argentina, and Brazil. Mr. Donahue also said Nextel sees an opportunity
to add customers as Cingular Wireless moves ahead to acquire AT&T
Wireless Services, Inc., adding that there is often "distraction" among
companies involved in such mergers.

He also said Nextel planned to spend $600 million this year to expand
its footprint and said the carrier was pleased with its 10-year
sponsorship agreement with NASCAR. He also said a youth-oriented
pre-paid service called Boost Mobile, which has about 400,000
subscribers in California and Nevada, would expand to seven other
markets, including the New York City and Washington, D.C., areas. On
other technical issues, Mr. West noted that Nextel was working with
QUALCOMM, Inc., on QChat, a walkie-talkie service that operates over
CDMA (code-division multiple-access) and 802.11 networks. He also said
the carrier planned to deploy WiDEN data enhancement to its iDEN
(integrated digital enhanced network) system in the fourth quarter. The
technology will quadruple current data speeds to about 60-80 kilobits
per second, he said. As for "true" broadband services, "we are looking
at all technologies," in its lab but the company hasn't decided which to
deploy, Mr. West said. He noted that it had begun a trial of broadband
service in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., using Flarion Technologies Inc.'s
FLASH- OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) technology. The
trial will help Nextel gauge how customers use broadband services and
what they're willing to pay for it, Mr. West added.- Paul Kirby,
[email-masked]

http://www.tr.com/online/trd/2004/td032204/index.htm

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