Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has confirmed that the carrier would eventually shut down and dismantle the current iDEN network acquired from the purchase of Nextel in 2004 with no further details on specific start/end dates, or what the carrier plans to do with the 800MHz spectrum holdings once vacated.
"Over time, we’ll have fewer and fewer customers on the iDEN network," he said. "That allows us to use some of that capacity on the network that is freed up and use it for CDMA. It’s a gradual process. There will be an end date for all 2G, just like there was an end date for 1G."
This follows previous confirmation of Sprint’s network restructuring involving the deployment of multi-mode base station hardware and the shutdown of a number of cellsites to improve network efficiency last month.
It’s about time. The sooner, the better. Of course, I can already hear the nextel fanoys: “but, but, Part 90…”
What will Sprint do with the iDEN network once they shut it down?
It’s possible that the network could be sold… however, it’s unlikely that Sprint would find a buyer. The plans to sell it to the federal government that we covered years back failed with the Networx contracts.
At this point, the highest likelihood would be that the network would be shut down and scrapped. The spectrum would then be reallocated for 4G utilization.