RE: "...Nextel would have ceased to exist within just a few years--due to their overloaded network."

Sorry, gloopey1, you are so wrong it is laughable.

(1) Nextel already was underway in preparing for conversion from iDEN to CDMA to increase network capacity for voice calls.

(2) Nextel was already in regional trials with several of their large corporate customers testing Flarion for their high-speed, high-bandwidth data network. That was YEARS before Sprint or VZ or ATT were anywhere close to trials...in fact, the other big carriers were just beginnning to THINK about high-speed data networks when NEXTEL ALREADY HAD THEIR NETWORK OPERATIONAL IN REAL-WORLD TRIALS. BTW, the current WiMax technology is a close relative to the Flarion technology that Nextel had up and running in the Research Triangle area.

Yes, Nextel's iDEN network was suffering greatly during rebanding, but Nextel was clearly years ahead of the competition in moving ahead to address all of their network issues and to leapfrog everyone else with high-speed, high-bandwidth data capability, alongside of their already bulletproof PTT system.

Then Sprint bought Nextel and tossed everything out the window. All the plans & trials that Nextel already had underway which would have leapfrogged every other carrier in the US, were axed, and it took at least five years for the rest of them to catch up to where Nextel was when Sprint killed it.