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?

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) would do best to get rid of its struggling iDEN mobile network. Yes, this is the entire national wireless network it brought on board when Sprint and Nextel merged in 2005. Customers are leaving at a rapid pace, so Sprint be best to just jettison the network and move its customers over to the Sprint side of things. That sounds odd just saying that (the "Sprint" side of things?).

While that merger stands in tatters now, Sprint still continues to operate and support two completely separate national mobile networks as it tries desperately to unload just about anything with the word "Nextel" on it. It might as well -- the failed merger has had tens of billions in write-offs recently.

Who would want an outdated (albeit, valuable) national wireless network? How about private equity? Sprint CEO Dan Hesse appears to be looking for a buyer, although a sale of the Nextel national network infrastructure has not been formally announced. While competitors have improved their national networks to keep up with increasing subscriber counts and wireless data usage, Nextel's aging infrastructure is worth something. Just not much.

Leave it to private equity investors to try and buy a national network for pennies on the dollar and then resell it in pieces for what probably would be a very nice profit. Sprint shareholders have been clamoring for a sale like this for over a year now, and new-to-the-corner-office Hesse won't disappoint. That is, if credit can return so someone can get a line to buy the thing.