Sprint and Nextel Merge

Its official! Sprint and Nextel announced the finishing touches of a $36 billion merge, forming Sprint Nextel Corporation. These telecommunication firms agreed to merge last December creating the third largest wireless operator in the United States behind Cingular and Verizon Wireless.
According to the Sprint Nextel Corporation this merge will allow the corporation to become a leading communications provider that will offer a comprehensive range of innovative wireless and wire line products and services to consumer, business and government customers.
Sprint Nextel plans to offer customers a wide range of products and
As a combined corporation, Sprint Nextel will offer greater opportunities for customer's services.
That's great news for roommates Lauren Smith and Elizabeth Bethea, both seniors. The roommates of three years can now talk to each other on their cell phones for free, something they normally did not do before nights and weekends, since the merge of Sprint and Nextel.
"I like the fact that I can call my roommate and actually hold a conversation. Most of our conversations are usually limited to one of us saying, 'I'm low on minutes, I'll call you back after nine,' or 'hurry up, talk fast!' It's a win-win situation", said Betha a Sprint customer.
However, not everyone is satisfied with Sprint. Alexis Piggee, a junior Business Administration major, said "As a Sprint customer I have had several problems with my service. For example, I often lose my signal. Hopefully this merge will bring some sort of improvement to this issue," she said.
Damien Walter, an employee for the Sprint Nextel Corporation, stated "I don't find anything wrong with the merge itself," but said he did have problems with the training techniques.
"There was no hands-on involvement and a lack of information occurred. Now when a previous Nextel customer has issues I find it difficult to assist them," he continued.While the merger of these companies may seem appealing to the average consumer, there are some long-term issues worth considering. Nextel and Sprint's networks are incompatible and it will require a considerable investment of time and money to resolve this issue.
To convert all Nextel subscribers to the Sprint network would require replacing Nextel phones and ensuring that the "walkie-talkie" feature operated on a different network.
In the meantime, a significant financial commitment would have to be made in order to support two different technology platforms at the same time.
It is not required for customers to transfer from one provider to the other. Sprint will continue to maintain both networks until 2010.