Please understand the technology and the reasons for a merger before you simply try and make guesses about the products and whether it's feasible.
For both companies the walkie talkie features don't use the same network as the cellular or standard voice features. IDEN is a patent that Motorola and Qualcomm own that Nextel uses for thier PTT feature. Sprint uses CDMA for thier phone service but VOIP for their walkie talkie. Technically they PTT features work independant on each network so while they wouldn't use both on each in a merged situation uses one or the other might not be as big a hurdle as you might think.
A merger works well because of the clientell each carrier has, Nextel mostly large business and blue collar, Sprint more mainstream, possible younger groups because of the gaming features on phones. Combined they bring two or three very large masses of subscribers all with different needs that both companies offer in some fashion. Combined nearly 40M large would make for a strong subscriber base.
For both companies the walkie talkie features don't use the same network as the cellular or standard voice features. IDEN is a patent that Motorola and Qualcomm own that Nextel uses for thier PTT feature. Sprint uses CDMA for thier phone service but VOIP for their walkie talkie. Technically they PTT features work independant on each network so while they wouldn't use both on each in a merged situation uses one or the other might not be as big a hurdle as you might think.
A merger works well because of the clientell each carrier has, Nextel mostly large business and blue collar, Sprint more mainstream, possible younger groups because of the gaming features on phones. Combined they bring two or three very large masses of subscribers all with different needs that both companies offer in some fashion. Combined nearly 40M large would make for a strong subscriber base.