Sprint: Nextel network will go offline in 13 months

Sprint has officially started the countdown for taking its Nextel iDEN network offline: T-minus 13 months and 2 days.

Sprint plans to turn off the Nextel network’s key push-to-talk Direct Connect capabilities as soon as June 30, 2013, effectively shutting down all iDEN services. Sprint said it has already stopped selling some Nextel devices, and in the next few months it will discontinue its iDEN phone portfolio completely. In two days it will send out notices to its core government and business customers warning them of the pending deadline, and it said it will work with all of its Nextel and Boost Mobile iDEN customers to transition them over to its CDMA network, over which it has recreated the walk-talkie-style Direct Connect service.