Sprint CEO Confirms Eventual Shutdown of iDEN Network
Humberto SaabedraSprint 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.
