Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Verizon Wireless Sues Nextel Over Cellphone Prototypes

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 18:24:20 -0400

Like I said;  " How Business Gets Done"
                                                                   -Dirty

Bye-Bye- Timmy, Barry & Paulee
=====================================================================================

Dow Jones Business News
Verizon Wireless Sues Nextel Over Cellphone Prototypes
Friday June 27, 6:10 pm ET
By Jesse Drucker, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

NEW YORK -- Verizon Wireless has filed a lawsuit against Nextel Communications
Inc.
(NasdaqNM:NXTL - News) , charging Nextel with improperly acquiring prototypes of a

vital new Verizon cellphone and gaining unauthorized access to Verizon Wireless'
network.

The complaint comes at a time when
competition between the two carriers
is about to heat up markedly.

Verizon Wireless is soon expected to
roll out an offering competing directly
with Nextel's popular "Direct
Connect" service, which allows
cellphone users to communicate
using a walkie-talkie-like feature. The
feature, also known as "push to talk,"
has helped Nextel build a huge
business-customer base with the
highest average revenue per user
and lowest customer turnover rate in
the U.S. wireless industry.

According to the suit, filed Friday in
Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va., Nextel came into possession earlier
this month
of a pair of Verizon Wireless prototype phones using the new service. Accusing
Nextel
of "unlawful corporate espionage," Verizon says its wireless rival then obtained "

unauthorized access" to Verizon's network and made hundreds of push-to-talk calls.

"Nextel's unauthorized testing of Verizon Wireless' prototype push to talk
handsets and
network allowed Nextel to improperly obtain valuable, confidential, and
proprietary
business information," the suit claims. It also alleges Nextel shared that
information with
an unnamed industry analyst to "improperly influence industry reviews" of Verizon
Wireless' upcoming service.

"We found out about others getting demonstrations of the product, and we knew we
weren't giving those demonstrations," said Jim Gerace, a spokesman for Verizon
Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC .

Audrey Schaefer, a Nextel spokeswoman, said the company had just received the
filing
and is in the process of reviewing it.

"Nextel is confident it has conducted itself properly, so we're baffled by the
claims," she
added. "We believe it's entirely without merit and we will defend ourselves
vigorously."
Ms. Schaefer declined further comment on the events alleged in the complaint.

Verizon Wireless, based in Bedminster, N.J., is the country's largest wireless
carrier
based on number of subscribers with 33.3 million customers. The Reston, Va.-based
Nextel is the No. 5 carrier, with 11.1 million subscribers. Over the past year,
Nextel's
share price has been on a tear, more than quadrupling since last summer.

The suit charges Nextel with Federal Communications Commission (News - Websites)
violations for using its network without its authorization. "Nextel and its
employees and
agents had no license from the FCC, or authority from Verizon Wireless, to operate

Verizon Wireless' prototype push to talk handsets on frequencies licensed to
Verizon
Wireless," the suit claims. The complaint also alleges Nextel violated various
federal
and state computer-fraud and computer-crime laws.

-By Jesse Drucker; The Wall Street Journal; 212-416-3530

http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030627/1810000808_1.html

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