Sprint announces new BlackBerry for Nextel iDEN

The CEO of Sprint, Dan Hesse, has announced a new BlackBerry phone for the company's iDEN network, reports say. Sprint inherited the network when it acquired Nextel, but has long been accused of neglecting it, despite it having once had widespread popularity with taxi and construction companies, thanks to push-to-talk support. According to Hesse, the new iDEN BlackBerry is expected "later this year," and will have Wi-Fi -- a feature effectively absent from other iDEN options.

Smartphones in general are missing from the iDEN network, one of the few available being the outdated BlackBerry 7100i. The new phone is likely a part of Hesse's commitment to renew iDEN services, announced in January of this year. Prior to that point rumors had circulated that Sprint would shut the network down, since it requires extra infrastructure and is generally lacking in ways to sell added services. [via Gearlog]

Filed under: gadgets
Other story tags: sprint, cellphones, BlackBerry, Nextel, iDEN