At 12:01am US/EDT yesterday, Sprint turned off the iDEN network nationally. With the iDEN network shut down, the next step for Sprint is to reuse the iDEN spectrum for 3G/4G services.
Sprint’s shutdown of iDEN service ends the eight-year period of Sprint owning and running Nextel’s iDEN network in the United States. The period began with mismanagement, culture clashes between Nextel and Sprint, and divestitures of international operations that helped iDEN grow in the Americas. It was complicated by Sprint’s work to determine its 3G upgrade path (which it wound up choosing CDMA2000 1X EvDO) and its efforts to consolidate and get out of the DSL business (which became Embarq, now part of CenturyLink).
By the end of 2010, Sprint’s reputation was in tatters, and it vowed to deliver on its promises of shutting down iDEN and using the spectrum for 3G and 4G service. Now, it can begin the fulfill that promise through its Network Vision program.
With the iDEN network being turned off, Sprint is now free to fully utilize the ESMR 800 spectrum for CDMA 1X and LTE service, which it gained approval for last year. Consequently, Sprint will become the third national operator with the ability to offer widespread rural 4G service. In most of Sprint’s current footprint, Sprint will be able to offer CDMA 1X and 5MHz LTE.
However, there are some complications with that. Because the United States is bordered by Canada and Mexico, Sprint has to be careful about interference Mike by Telus at the Canadian border and Nextel Mexico at the Mexican border.
Some of the direct border areas (like at the Great Lakes and Northwest Washington) will not permit more than CDMA 1X and 1.4MHz LTE to operate there. For the time being, I suspect these areas will only have CDMA 1X, since they are urban areas where Sprint’s PCS G block covers them with LTE quite well. Other border areas (like the Southwest border, stretching from California to Texas) will permit CDMA 1X and 3MHz LTE.
Borders are not the only problem areas, though. Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia are limited to 3MHz LTE because the ESMR band is further divided between Sprint and SouthernLinc (owned by Southern Company, an electric power utility company). SouthernLinc recently began offering 3G service through an indirect wholesale agreement with T-Mobile, and it is expected that it will transition iDEN to LTE in the future, though no plans have been announced yet.
Regardless of these issues, Sprint has been quietly working to prepare for the activation of CDMA 1X and LTE on ESMR. Virtually every Sprint subscriber using a phone released by Sprint in the last three years will support at least CDMA 1X on ESMR. New devices supporting LTE on ESMR are coming in a few months.