Sprint Nextel’s been struggling since ever since the $36 billion merger, and now that ex-CEO Gary Forsee is out of the picture, the company’s scaling back on its ill-conceived WiMax plans (aiming to bring the high-speed wireless network to only a few markets, as opposed to making it available to 300 million people.) Forsee’s reign created an organizational mess, and everyone and their mother are offering opinions on what the company needs to do to recover. Now in addition to strengthening its core networks and improving its customer service, Sprint Nextel needs to answer to the police.
Nextel’s iDen technology (which isn’t compatible with Sprint’s CDMA technology) is interfering with police and fire radios, and the company has until June 2008 to fix the problem. The deadline could be extended, but if that doesn’t happen, it looks like all the advice in the world may be useless. Sprint Nextel’s losing customers without any help. Can it really afford to lose 20 million in one fell swoop?
(Police image courtesy of Mike “Dakinewavamon” Kline, cc 2.0)
