- June 29, 2013 01:55pm EST
"During the past year, Sprint has extensively notified customers of the impending shutdown and encouraged early migration from the iDEN Nextel National Network to avoid service disruptions. The notifications have included customer letters, legal notifications, email reminders, voicemails and text messages. The company will use other communications tactics during the network's final days of operation," reads a statement from Sprint.
The big disconnection will surely come as a surprise to some iDEN users who, for whatever reason, still haven't received the news. That, in itself, would be a pretty remarkable feat however, given that Sprint's been talking up the impending death of its iDEN network since 2010. The company has also used just about every kind of strategy – including free phones, discounted service or, in the case of stragglers who still didn't get the hint, additional service fees for those sticking to iDEN — to convince its iDEN user base to switch over to its CDMA network.
According to a report from Gigaom's Kevin Fitchard in April, there were still approximately 1.3 million iDEN subscribers as of the company's first-quarter fiscal report. Sprint representatives have estimated that the company will be able to recapture approximately 30 to 40 percent of these subscribers, which leaves Sprint in for a small world of hurt as far as second-quarter subscriber counts go — especially for business customers who have both Nextel and Sprint accounts, should they decide to jump ship for a carrier with a more prominent LTE network.
In the past quarter, the company lost 415,000 subscribers, bringing it to around 55.2 million subscribers in total. Losses from Nextel's iDEN network cost the company 771,000 customers, but Sprint was able to recapture approximately 46 percent.
As for the raw equipment involved in Sprint's iDEN shutdown, the company plans to recycle anything it can't redeploy elsewhere in its network. The approximately 30,000 iDEN sites being dismantled will generate just around 100 million pounds of material and recycled gear.
Also hitting the recycling bin? The "Nextel" name itself, which will follow its iDEN equipment into oblivion as a result of Japan's Softbank purchasing 70 percent of Sprint Nextel last year. Once the deal officially closes, the company will simply be known as Sprint Corp.
