The end is finally in sight for Sprint's iDEN network

. Sprint's 2005 merger with Nextel will likely go down as the textbook example for how telecom mergers can go heinously wrong. The major reason. Sprint's inability to effectively integrate Nextel's iDEN network and services into its own CDMA-based network and services. The iDEN network cost Sprint dearly, as the carrier was forced to write off a $29 billion loss from the Nextel acquisition in late 2007 and then saw an astonishing 4 million wireless subscribers flee in 2008. To make matters worse, the iDEN network was clogging up spectrum on the valuable 800MHz band that Sprint could have used to deploy an LTE network.

Boy Genius Report, The end is finally in sight for Sprint's iDEN network