Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel embarked on a series of wrongful acts-

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 07:08:15 -0400

Nextel accused of stealing

By Tom Giles
Bloomberg News

SAN FRANCISCO — Verizon Wireless accused Nextel Communications of stealing
unreleased models of its new
walkie-talkie telephones and making hundreds of calls to test Verizon Wireless'
network.

The claims, made in a lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court in Alexandria, Va.,
show Nextel "crossed the line of healthy
competition," said Jim Gerace, spokesman for Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S.
mobile-phone company.

Nextel obtained two of Verizon's handsets on June 10 and placed "hundreds" of test
calls on Verizon's network over the next
few days, the suit says. Many of the calls passed through Verizon's computer
switch in Chantilly, Va., Verizon said. That's the
same network-computer switch that handles calls for Reston, Va., where Nextel is
based.

The moves gave Nextel "valuable, confidential and proprietary business
information," Verizon said. Nextel has and may
continue to use that information "to compete unfairly."

Verizon Wireless is preparing to release a phone that doubles as a walkie-talkie
in what will be the first challenge to Nextel, the
only seller of push-to-talk phones for the past decade.

Nextel's near-monopoly has allowed it to lure lucrative business subscribers who
tend to stick with their provider. Those are
customers that Verizon Wireless and other mobile-phone companies covet.

"Fearing competition from Verizon Wireless, and concerned that customers soon will
have a choice in push-to-talk services,
Nextel embarked on a series of wrongful acts," Verizon Wireless said in the suit.

Nextel is confident it acted properly and is "baffled" by the lawsuit, said
spokeswoman Audrey Schaefer. "We absolutely
believe it's without merit," Schaefer said.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/135116100_verizonsuit28.html

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