Sprint Nextel will keep the Nextel iDEN network, despite losses

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) won't be selling its older Nextel iDEN nationwide wireless network after all. The company could not find a buyer for the network and supporting infrastructure, which it built with Motorola in the 1990s. So it will continue partnering with Motorola as it serves the existing (but shrinking) customer base that apparently cannot live without direct access to the Nextel "push to talk" feature that was the main competitive differentiator of Nextel's entire service before Sprint bought the company.

With Sprint already having written off $30 billion of the $35 billion acquisition cost, it makes sense to just keep that network. Although the Nextel customer base has shrunk considerably, at some point it will most likely stop losing customers and will retain the core group that just love its service. In other words, it probably makes more financial sense for Sprint Nextel to keep that customer base revenue stream coming in than to sell the entire national network (that nobody wants to buy anyway) for pennies on the dollar. OK, maybe a dime or two on the dollar.

Sprint will continue operating on the 800MHz frequency, which it shares with public safety services, until it can vacate that radio spectrum, something the FCC is allowing the company to do over time. Still, the Nextel brand still confuses quite a few people who are shopping Sprint for wireless service. Perhaps Sprint should market it solely as a business wireless network?