I don't send text messages, but I do receive a lot of them. I have Nextel's "NextMail" PTT-to-email service, which sends an email with MP3 audio file of my voice attached, to any email address in the world. Those emails arrive in the recipient's email inbox within approximately 10 seconds after I release the PTT button, and the text replies from the recipients get back to my Nextel phone within 5-10 seconds after they click their email send button.

I don't know why you've experienced such a long delay with your text messages; I've found Nextel's network to be much more reliable than T-Mobile's and Verizon's in terms of quickly and consistently delivering voicemail notifications and text messages to me no matter where I am in the US. Have...
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This is because Nextel's proprietary technology, Motorola iDEN, is not all ideal for high-speed data transfer. When iDEN was first formed, data wasn't even on the market. iDEN was formed especially for the instant PTT. Verizon, Alltel, and Sprint use CDMA as their technology. CDMA is much better for data transfer, but voice quality isn't quite as good and PTT is nowhere near as good. If you want PTT, choose Nextel. If you want data, choose Sprint or another company. Remember though that Sprint Nextel's dual-mode phone will be out November 5th, which combines Nextel's superior PTT with Sprint's high-speed data transfer.

The reason your buddy is having problems with text messaging can be a few things, but here are the most common problems, swapping sim chips with another phone that is of an older vintage therefore putting your buddies phone on the wrong servers, 2nd upgraded his phone but did not update the serial # with nextel, 3rd the phone is defective. I have customers that do 3-5,000 txt messages per month that are having problems every once in a while when there is a network problem, but other than that it is almost immediate. Call in and get level 2 tech support he should be fixed within 24 hours.

nextel isnt good for data, iden period.

I have an i860 and text quite a bit. Nextel BLOWS when it comes to text messages. First of all, you are just notified you have a text message, then you have to sit for sometimes 10-15 seconds while the phone downloads the message. You don't just "get" your message like with CDMA and GSM carriers. This may not seem like a long time, but when you're texting back and forth it get real annoying.

Secondly, sometimes it takes one minute or less to get a message from another carrier, and sometimes it will take 6 hours plus, if I get them at all. Nextel likes to vaporize my messages every couple of days. This will happen with messages from T-Mobile, Verizon, and even my friends that text me from Sprint. I love getting messages all night ...
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