While Sprint has no plans to bring back the push-to-talk network, it could use the Nextel branding to woo business customers.
Sprint might find a way to bring back the defunct Nextel, but not its network, a new report claims.
Sprint is considering bringing back the Nextel branding to attract business customers, TechCrunch is reporting on Tuesday, citing people who claim to have knowledge of its plans. While Sprint would like to use the Nextel brand to attract business customers, it has no desire to bring back the "push-to-talk" iDEN network Nextel's technology was based on.
Nextel proved to be a conundrum for Sprint after it acquired the firm for $35 billion. The company justified the purchase by saying that it could help it attract more business customers, but as the costs of the iDEN network mounted and corporate customers fell out of love with the technology, Sprint was left with a massive bill and little value in Nextel.
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Earlier this year, Sprint finally decommissioned the iDEN network.
In addition to attracting business customers through the Nextel brand, Sprint is also planning to merge its prepaid companies, Boost and Virgin Mobile, into a singular service it'll call Sprint Freedom, according to TechCrunch sources. That offering could launch as early as the first quarter of 2014.
But it's Nextel that appears to be the core focus of Sprint going into 2014. According to TechCrunch's sources, the company wants to make Nextel's offerings "premium" in nature, offering both 4G fixed and mobile broadband to customers.
CNET has contacted Sprint for comment on the report. We will update this story when we have more information.
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