End in sight for Nextel/Flarion trial

Nextel Communications has confirmed that it will end its one-year-old trial of Flarion Technologies’ FLASH-OFDM solution on June 30 to begin analyzing the data culled from the test before making any other decisions about deploying the technology.

A Nextel spokesman said the company’s pending merger with Sprint didn’t have any connection to Nextel’s plan to end the trial, which has been going on in and around Raleigh, N.C., since February of last year. “This was always a trial with a beginning and an end date, and ending it has nothing to do with that [deal],” he said.

The trial involves about 3000 customers using a network of about 130 base stations. Rumors in recent weeks suggested that Nextel had informed customers involved in the trial that it soon would end. Flarion deferred to Nextel for comment on the end of the test, though a company spokesman said a general statement from Flarion would be forthcoming.

Since Sprint and Nextel announced their merger plans in December, there has been much speculation about the role that alternative broadband wireless architectures would play in Nextel’s future, since Nextel customers would be able to get 3G bandwidth from Sprint’s CDMA 1X EV-DO network upgrade.