WiDEN History
iDEN, the platform which WiDEN upgrades, and the protocol on which it is based, was originally introduced by Motorola in 1993, and launched as a commercial network by Nextel in the United States in September 1996.
WiDEN was originally anticipated to be a major stepping stone for United States wireless telephone provider Nextel Communications and its affiliate, Nextel Partners. However, with the December 2004 announcement of the proposed Sprint Nextel merger, it has been speculated that the Nextel iDEN network will be quickly abandoned in favor of Sprint's CDMA network. Although a complete roadmap of the merger's impact on the combined company's wireless networks has not been released, Nextel and Motorola have agreed to continue to maintain and expand the iDEN network through, at least, 31 December 2010. WiDEN has not been active on the NEXTEL National Network since October 2005 when rebanding efforts in the 800 MHz band began in a Sprint effort to utilize those data channels as a way to handle more cellular phone call traffic on the NEXTEL iDEN network. To this date, WiDEN has not been restored.
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