So I am thinking of getting an extended battery for my 7520, and I was wondering if there are any rumors of the next Blackberry Nextel will release, and if there were any rumors to the time frame that it may happen in?

I personally don't like the 7100i, so that is not an option for me. Anyway - what have you all heard?

I honestly do not think RIM has any new iDen BlackBerry devices in development for Nextel specifically. With Sprint at the helm, the push is to get iDen customers to switch to the CDMA network. You may have luck if Telus pushes RIM to develop a new iDen BB for the MiKE network.

Hahaha... that's good. Telus. Comedy gold. They still haven't released the 7100i and Nextel released it 7 months ago. Something tells me that BB + iDEN may not have much of a future.

I'm aware of that, but I was trying to give Milkman some hope... lol

iden isnt going anywhere just going to be revamped they arent pushing anyone to cdma

I've heard that Telus may release a MIKE version of the 7130e. Not sure what model number it would be? Probably another 7xxx
It wouldn't surprise me that they will have the 8700 by year end.

How do you figure?

The reason Nextel merged with Sprint was to comply with a Federal order requiring them to remove their equipment from the 800 MHz band. They discussed standing up a 1900 MHz CDMA network, but decided that the easiest way to do that was to merge with someone else.

So unless Sprint is planning to overlay iDen on the 1900 band, which would be exorbitantly expensive, iDen will be removed from the Sprint network eventually, and all current Sprint iDen customers will be moved to the CDMA network.

Not possible. the 7130e is CDMA, so that device would go to the Telus PCS network, not the MiKE network.

I really really don't think we will see an iDen 8700.

Telus already has the 7130e on the PCS/EVDO network. As stated in other forums, the 7100i is the only data device being released this year on the Mike network, so the likelihood of seeing an iDEN-enabled 8700 this year is not high.

Given what I've heard about Nextel and iDEN's future, I would be very surprised to see an 8700 iDEN device even in development. Supposedly, the first CDMA enabled 8700 series BB's will have a PTT function that operates over the CDMA network (or even EDGE/EVDO/UTMS which would make more sense). Once these devices are available (late summer, early fall) you will probably see iDEN devices and the network disappear. Just conjecture though.

When I Had Nextel I Received A Letter From Them Advising My Handset Would Only Be Good For Another 5 Years Then They Were Switching To Cdma. Have They Changed Their Minds? Also For Those Of You In The South, Southern Linc Is Developing A Blackberry Device For Their Iden Network...iden Is So Popular In South America And Canada And Europe, I Can't See Nextel Leaving It.....

That is what I have been preaching all along based on my research.

I never received a letter from Nextel about the five years. But as long as it is a good phone, I could care less if it was on iden or cdma

What makes you think it is popular in Canada and Europe?

There is ONE iDen provider in Canada, and none in Europe that I know of. The closest country I know of is Israel. There isn't even THAT many carriers in South America.

As a matter of fact, the following are the only countries in which an iDen network exists:
Argentina
Brazil
Colombia
Mexico
Peru
South Korea
Canada
Israel
Japan
Jordan
Singapore
China
Saudi Arabia
United States

It's popular in Canada amongst business users, but the lack of competition means that Telus can basically do whatever it wants with prices, technology adoption, and coverage. Which, to date, hasn't been a lot. It was a great service... 3 years ago which is roughly around the same time that all development stalled. I haven't heard of any plans to introduce WiDEN and all the rumours surrounding dual-mode phones are just that, rumours.

WiDen won't happen in the US now because Sprint is concentrating efforts on EVDO evolution (I believe they are aiming for Rev. A which is something in the realm of 3 MBits up and down stream).

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7520/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/103)

IDEN doesn't exist in europe

well i never recieved that letter fromnextel either nor has anyone i know...anyhow sprint says they are releasing its first dual cdma iden phone in the third quater of this year click http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/0...a-and-wifi-cd/ for more info

I really don't mind moving to Sprint's CDMA network, as long as the PTT feature would work with all my other Nextel friends, which I believe would be the problem....

:/

That is what they are working on now... ReadyLink and DirectConnect should in theory be able to work together as they are both packet data services, but the real key is getting ReadyLink's latency down to the level of DirectConnect. The closest PTT system I have seen to DirectConnect in terms of latency is Alltel's.

Engadget should not be considered a reliable source. It's like quoting wikipedia as a source.