Sprint <-> Nextel M2M silliness

So I was at the mall, and Sprint now has a couple kiosks there (they used to
only have one)... so I wandered around and looked at some of the phones they
had, and picked up an M2M brochure.

And I read that Sprint M2M minutes only count on calls to phone lines in
Nextel corporate markets, not affiliate ("partner") markets. That leaves out
roughly half the country. Nextel users in those markets can't call Sprint
phones using M2M minutes either.

And it struck me as silly. I mean, Sprint makes no distinction for Sprint
affiliate markets, right? If you call a Sprint user in an affiliate market,
it's still mobile-to-mobile.

One would hope they're only doing this because, perhaps, current contractual
obligations with Nextel partners force them to do so. OTOH, Sprint's
executives have proven to be dumber than a box of rocks lately, so who knows?

All I know is that I was very amused that about a month after I left, things
changed so that I could've called my father's Nextel phone for free.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: [email protected] Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

---

› See More: Sprint <-> Nextel M2M silliness

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> Steve Sobol <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> And I read that Sprint M2M minutes only count on calls to phone lines in
>> Nextel corporate markets, not affiliate ("partner") markets. That leaves
>> out
>> roughly half the country.
>
> Can you go into more detail with this?
>
> The lady at the Sprint store more or less dismissed it as a non-issue,
> saying there weren't that many affected Nextel customers to worry about.
>

If I remember the numbers right, Nextel Partners has roughly two million
subscribers in secondary and rural markets. Because they are a separate
company, Sprint does not have access to their database to verify if a number
is in there or not.

If a Sprint customer already has free pcs-pcs calling,
is any change to the account needed to get free
Sprint-Nextel calling in corporate areas?

"ll" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> If a Sprint customer already has free pcs-pcs calling,
> is any change to the account needed to get free
> Sprint-Nextel calling in corporate areas?

Dunno- while I've seen the term 'corporate area' bandied about I have no
idea of what is meant. Is it the native Nextel network or something else?

I have free pcs-pcs calling and I did not change anything about my
account. In October I called a friend's Nextel phone just to see how it
would appear on my bill. We're both in San Francisco. On my bill it
appeared with the pcs-pcs symbol next to it, meaning it was a free call
for me.

Actually, it would have been a free call for me anyway because it was
after 7pm, but it did appear on the bill as pcs-pcs.

ll wrote:
> If a Sprint customer already has free pcs-pcs calling,
> is any change to the account needed to get free
> Sprint-Nextel calling in corporate areas?

--
Frank Harris in San Francisco with an A680

Steve Sobol wrote:

> And I read that Sprint M2M minutes only count on calls to phone lines in
> Nextel corporate markets, not affiliate ("partner") markets. That leaves
> out roughly half the country. Nextel users in those markets can't call
> Sprint phones using M2M minutes either.
>
> And it struck me as silly. I mean, Sprint makes no distinction for
> Sprint affiliate markets, right? If you call a Sprint user in an
> affiliate market, it's still mobile-to-mobile.

You should probably contact Nextel Partners with your concerns, Steve,
as they are the ones making the stink. Right now, Nextel Partners is
demanding to be bought out by Sprint as a result of the merger, and are
taking a rather antagonistic approach to the whole thing. Among the
snags Sprint is running into as a result is M2M.

To be sure, Sprint has its own set of problems with its affiliates, and
cannot fully market the Nextel-Sprint combination in markets where
Sprint affiliates operate. You'll also note that coverage maps are no
longer available for Sprint affiliates on the website, and the site now
treats these markets differently in terms of plans and pricing.

> One would hope they're only doing this because, perhaps, current
> contractual obligations with Nextel partners force them to do so. OTOH,
> Sprint's executives have proven to be dumber than a box of rocks lately,
> so who knows?

If you ask me, the whole merger was a knee-jerk reaction to market
conditions, and a lesson in how to make all the wrong business
decisions. I am certainly happy to be gone.

--
E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 16:22:29 -0500, Isaiah Beard
>If you ask me, the whole merger was a knee-jerk reaction to market
>conditions, and a lesson in how to make all the wrong business
>decisions. I am certainly happy to be gone.

I agree with you on that. You were smart to get out when you did.

Joe Huber
[email protected]

"Isaiah Beard" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Steve Sobol wrote:
<snipped>

> If you ask me, the whole merger was a knee-jerk reaction to market
> conditions, and a lesson in how to make all the wrong business decisions.
> I am certainly happy to be gone.

Oh, the merger might run into some bumps trying to turn two companies into
one, but I don't think it was a mistake, considering someone was going to
snap up Nextel eventually. This way, SPCS gets a hellava lot more bandwidth
to play with.

Bob

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> Steve Sobol <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>And I read that Sprint M2M minutes only count on calls to phone lines in
>>Nextel corporate markets, not affiliate ("partner") markets. That leaves out
>>roughly half the country.
>
>
> Can you go into more detail with this?
>
> The lady at the Sprint store more or less dismissed it as a non-issue,
> saying there weren't that many affected Nextel customers to worry about.

That might be true. It looked like all of the most heavily populated states
ARE covered. Still, the policy is going to come back to bite them in the ass
when their customers get pissed that they may not be able to use M2M.




--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: [email protected] Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Isaiah Beard wrote:
> Steve Sobol wrote:
>
>> And I read that Sprint M2M minutes only count on calls to phone lines
>> in Nextel corporate markets, not affiliate ("partner") markets. That
>> leaves out roughly half the country. Nextel users in those markets
>> can't call Sprint phones using M2M minutes either.
>>
>> And it struck me as silly. I mean, Sprint makes no distinction for
>> Sprint affiliate markets, right? If you call a Sprint user in an
>> affiliate market, it's still mobile-to-mobile.
>
> You should probably contact Nextel Partners with your concerns, Steve,
> as they are the ones making the stink. Right now, Nextel Partners is
> demanding to be bought out by Sprint as a result of the merger, and are
> taking a rather antagonistic approach to the whole thing. Among the
> snags Sprint is running into as a result is M2M.

Ah, ok. I'm glad the stupidity isn't Sprint's fault. There may be hope for
them yet. :>

> To be sure, Sprint has its own set of problems with its affiliates, and
> cannot fully market the Nextel-Sprint combination in markets where
> Sprint affiliates operate. You'll also note that coverage maps are no
> longer available for Sprint affiliates on the website, and the site now
> treats these markets differently in terms of plans and pricing.

Really. I guess that negates my comment about M2M between Sprint and Sprint
affiliates, doesn't it.

> If you ask me, the whole merger was a knee-jerk reaction to market
> conditions, and a lesson in how to make all the wrong business
> decisions. I am certainly happy to be gone.

Ah, I don't believe that it's a bad idea, long-term. Short-term, I expect
there to be a lot of problems. I'm happy to be gone too, but my irritation
with Sprint started before the merger.


--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: [email protected] Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Bob Smith wrote:

>>If you ask me, the whole merger was a knee-jerk reaction to market
>>conditions, and a lesson in how to make all the wrong business decisions.
>>I am certainly happy to be gone.
>
>
> Oh, the merger might run into some bumps trying to turn two companies into
> one, but I don't think it was a mistake, considering someone was going to
> snap up Nextel eventually. This way, SPCS gets a hellava lot more bandwidth
> to play with.

Nextel wins too, long-term. I think the short-term is where we'll see the
problems crop up.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: [email protected] Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

"Steve Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Bob Smith wrote:
>
>>>If you ask me, the whole merger was a knee-jerk reaction to market
>>>conditions, and a lesson in how to make all the wrong business decisions.
>>>I am certainly happy to be gone.
>>
>>
>> Oh, the merger might run into some bumps trying to turn two companies
>> into one, but I don't think it was a mistake, considering someone was
>> going to snap up Nextel eventually. This way, SPCS gets a hellava lot
>> more bandwidth to play with.
>
> Nextel wins too, long-term. I think the short-term is where we'll see the
> problems crop up.

What problems Steve? SPCS has already said they will be maintaining the Iden
network till 2010, till they can get all their Nextel customers moved over
to CDMA. I'm not seeing or hearing about any problems right now, save for
those occasional CS issues.

Bob

Steve Sobol wrote:

>> You should probably contact Nextel Partners with your concerns, Steve,
>> as they are the ones making the stink. Right now, Nextel Partners is
>> demanding to be bought out by Sprint as a result of the merger, and
>> are taking a rather antagonistic approach to the whole thing. Among
>> the snags Sprint is running into as a result is M2M.
>
>
> Ah, ok. I'm glad the stupidity isn't Sprint's fault. There may be hope
> for them yet. :>

Well, I wouldn't go that far. They knew this was going to be an issue
going into the merger, and yet they went through with it anyway.
Consdiering a price for Nextel Partners hasn't even been decided on yet,
it was a dumb move going into this merger when the ultimate collateral
costs are unknown to you.

>> To be sure, Sprint has its own set of problems with its affiliates,
>> and cannot fully market the Nextel-Sprint combination in markets where
>> Sprint affiliates operate. You'll also note that coverage maps are no
>> longer available for Sprint affiliates on the website, and the site
>> now treats these markets differently in terms of plans and pricing.
>
>
> Really. I guess that negates my comment about M2M between Sprint and
> Sprint affiliates, doesn't it.

No, M2M for Sprint affiliates should continue as normal. M2M between
Sprint and its affiliates was a long-standing, pre-existing agreement.
They just never had a pre-existing agreement for M2M with Nextel
Partners, and N.P. is not about to *start* such an agreement.

--
E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

Isaiah Beard wrote:
>
> If you ask me, the whole merger was a knee-jerk reaction to market
> conditions, and a lesson in how to make all the wrong business
> decisions.

Later, Isaiah Beard wrote:
>
> Well, I wouldn't go that far. They knew this was going to be an issue
> going into the merger, and yet they went through with it anyway.
> Consdiering a price for Nextel Partners hasn't even been decided on
> yet, it was a dumb move going into this merger when the ultimate
> collateral costs are unknown to you.
>


But by golly this is what you wrote in the Cingular group regarding the
Sprint/Nextel merger:
===========================
Isaiah Beard wrote:
> Haven't started? Funny that. Sprint stores and Nextel stores are
> already capable of serving either network's customets. Cross-network
> M2M is already in place. Each formet network's respective calling
> plans were COMPLEMENTED with the benefits of each side (i.e. Fair and
> Flexible with unlimited incoming minutes), rather than simply throwing
> away
> good existing plans and forcing people to confirm to more expensive
> rates. And the ability exists to switch from one system to another,
> WITHOUT
> any upgrade or termination fees, is standard practice.
>
> That seems like a hell of a good start to me, and far better than
> Cingular's initial attempt.
===========================


> I am certainly happy to be gone.

You have an interesting way of showing it, as you're still here. I
dropped into the Cingular NG as I was considering switching to them
about a month-ago (Sprint came through with a much better offer). I
don't believe I even bothered to post over there.

But you switched to Verizon, right? (Never read that group.) If so,
what's the point in hanging around Sprint and Cingular NGs, particularly
if you post contradicting opinions in both?


--
Mike

Bob Smith wrote:

> What problems Steve? SPCS has already said they will be maintaining the Iden
> network till 2010, till they can get all their Nextel customers moved over
> to CDMA. I'm not seeing or hearing about any problems right now, save for
> those occasional CS issues.

I expect to see some CS issues. Maybe some capacity issues too. Nothing major.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: [email protected] Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307