Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Verizon Wireless vs. Nextel

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2003 01:38:21 -0400

Verizon Wireless vs. Nextel

Verizon Wireless plans to sue Nextel over its acquisition of
Verizon prototypes featuring a new walkie-talkie feature.

posted 10:23am EST Mon Jun 30 2003 - submitted by Brian
Osborne

NEWS
According to court papers filed Friday, Verizon Wireless plans to sue
Nextel. In its lawsuit Verizon alleges that Nextel received two
prototypes of handsets with Verizon's new "push to talk" service on
June 10th. Nextel's Direct Connect service is very similar to Verizon's
planned Push to Talk service.

Verizon argues that in its testing of the prototypes Nextel has violated
FCC regulations, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and Virginia
state law. Nextel is also accused of using the information gathered
from its testing of the prototype handsets to leak information to at least
one industry analyst.

Read more on this topic in The Associated Press article, The Wall
Street Journal article, and CNET.

BRIAN'S OPINION
One thing that has set Nextel apart from the other carriers has been its
Direct Connect service. Even though this service has been unique to
Nextel, the company is still ranked on the list of cellular providers at
#5. Now even that ranking is in jeopardy, with larger providers
Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS, and AT&T Wireless coming out with
similar services.

It's very clear that Nextel sees this new service as an attack on its
niche in the market, and is now doing everything it can to protect it. I
wouldn't be shocked if Nextel truly acquired the prototypes, but the
question is whether the act of obtaining and testing those prototypes
illegal. It makes you also wonder if by acquiring the prototypes Nextel
wasn't gathering its own information in regards to a potential lawsuit
against the other carriers planning to release similar services. I can't
imagine that Nextel doesn't have some sort of patent on the Direct
Connect technology. If so, Nextel could have utilized information
gathered from the Verizon prototypes to determine if the new handsets
would be in violation of its current patent on the technology.

Verizon Wireless may have seen a lawsuit coming from Nextel, and
instead of waiting for it went on the attack with a lawsuit of its own. It
will be interesting to see if Nextel's acquisition of the Verizon handsets
was truly illegal. If its acts are found to be illegal, Nextel couldn't use
any information gathered from the testing of the prototypes in its own
lawsuit against Verizon Wireless.

USER COMMENTS 20 comment(s)
I wonder if they have proof (10:52am EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
I wonder how much proof Verizon has and how they got the information
that Nextel had the prototypes. .... and who let 2 prototypes out of the
lab. - by maximusGeek

Company's ethics (11:44am EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
When I worked at Intel, it was made very, very clear. Bring ANY
confidential info from a competitor to work, and you will be fired on the
spot. Use it in any way on the job, and be fired then Intel would see to
it that all related info would be handed over to the competitor so they
can sue you. This simply wasn't a cool thing to do.

Same thing at every other company I have worked with, either as a
partner or employee. And there is a substancial list of them.

Most companies I have done R&D for are very concerned about 'thought
contamination', thus not only is another competitor's confidential info
not wanted, it is outright forbidden.

I hope Nextel goes under, this tapeworm level of ethics should be
punished to the point that these parasites are bankrupt. - by Hodar

I use Nextel.Lousy TDMA . (12:27pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
Verizon's CDMA sounds clearer.I will switch as soon as Verizon gets
out its walkie-talkie. - by sound quality

Inadmissible.. (1:45pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
I believe that even if Nextel were to find evidence through their testing
that Verizon had indeed infringed and violated a Nextel copyright, that
that evidence would actually become inadmissiable in court because
the means to gather the evidence was illegal..aint the justice system
grand..I didnt go to law school, but I think I picked that up somewhere?
Any law geeks out there to confirm? - by CSharpGuy

Re:CSharpGuy (2:08pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
In the instant that you sell the first unit, anyone is free to test every
feature the unit has, in any manner/way/shape or form regardless of the
products intended purpose. We can test the impact resistance to a .45
pistol, or it's CDMA noise rejection bandwidth. Now, if the other
companies can reverse-engineer it goodie for them (that's how Compaq
got into the PC business, afterall).

However, if a company appropriates proto-type units, that were never
intended for sales, (or production units prior to release) that is corporate
espionage. This can carry some hefty punishments.

So, if Verizon did some testing on Nextel phones that is all legal, good
and standard practice. Nextel has the phones on the market, so
anyone can buy and test one as they see fit.

However, if anyone acquires a developing competitors product, and
tests that that is intellectual theft and corporate espionage. Nextel can
get nailed pretty big time, if convicted. - by Hodar

re. Hodar's comments... (3:14pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
>>Most companies I have done R&D for are very concerned about
'thought contamination', thus not only is another competitor's
confidential info not wanted, it is outright forbidden.

Grin, Microsoft works in just the opposite manner. And when they get
caught they either buy the company or pay them a hefty sum to get
them off the hook. Looking at MS's bank book though would indicate it
has been a very successful strategy for them.

My .02 - by Cheers!

Retards (3:37pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
You people are so stupid. Do you acctually think that verizon can
compare to the Nextel service. Direct Connect has been out for longer
then all of you have owned a cell phone. Even when verizon does come
out with it, its not gonna be nationwide(like Nextel). The only reason
that they are number five is because thier service is more expensive.
WHY? Because thier service is superior to other cell phone companies.
I have tried them all except verizon. Sprint suck the worst out of all of
them, at&t i dont even have to explain, and for verizon, whenever me
and my friends are out i have service when they dont. FOR GODS
SAKE they ask to borrow my phone. I hope verizon goes under
because they are a$$holes in the first place. - by CompWizKid

Hmmmm (3:53pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
Well, the problem I have with nextel is thier crappy coverage. It seems
every time i need to use my cell phone i have no service...ie strip of I89
from concord NH all the way to Vermont...Nextel KNOWS they have
holes in thier coverage particularly rural areas. Nextel is great until you
go on vacation somewhere. Theyre in great danger of loosing the
subscribers in my position if verizon offers a comperable service, i dont
blame them for being sneaky. - by Goober

Idiot Goober (4:06pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
I NEVER have problems with my service. - by CompWizKid

Re: CompWizKid (4:38pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
Why is Goober an idiot? All he did was point out that Nextel has areas
that have poor coverage. I don't have a Nextel phone but I work for them
and, quite frankly, he's right. There are huge sections of the country
that don't have coverage (all of Montana for instance). If you have
something that you pay for and it doesn't cover what you need, you're
not happy. Even then Goober wasn't really saying that he is upset he
just stated a fact. Certainly no reason to call him an idiot. - by
NextelCare

NXTL (4:54pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
If NXTL has been around longer than all the other carriers then why do
they have such crappy coverage? Sprint is the newest kid on the block
and already has better coverage than NXTL - by whatever

Idiots (5:43pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
It's nothing personal. It's just that people don't like other people telling
them that what they have is no good. Personally, I've had Nextel,
Sprint, and my wife had Verizon. I preferred Nextel to all the others,
even without the direct connect features. Sprint is not too bad, and I
find their coverage to be on par with Nextel's, except Nextel had no
roam. You either had coverage, or you did not. Verizon simply sucked.
They tried their best to rip us off every chance they got. They signed us
into a very long contract and would not let us out regardless of what the
new plans were. They didn't even offer the plan we were on any longer. I
finally paid them the $70 it cost to get out of their contract and said
good riddance. With Nextel, there was no contract, period.
- by ArcherB

Verizon: "We're not making any headway into Nextel's market."
(6:23pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
"Let's sue them."
- by WTF

Verizon - get a grip (6:46pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
Nextel has had the walkie talkie niche in the market since its inception
several years ago. The announcements of nationawide DC saw big
gains in the Nextel stock price.....This is simply a ploy by Verizon to
distract the market and confuse investors.....and what idiot let the
phones out of the lab - that's who Verizon should be suing, not Nextel.
- by MAT

Who Owns What (6:58pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
Oye Vey! Nextel's "Patented technology" is based on MOTOROLA'S
iDEN Network functionality, nothing Nextel invented or created. They
merely created the market & brand names for it. They were smart. They
have no ground to stand on about Verizon taking their patented
technology because THEY AREN'T THE PATENT HOLDER!! - by
Steve

T0 STEVE (8:07pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
B**** ***** - Nextel is way cooler than you any day! - by
Steve/XP

NEXTEL SUCKS (8:29pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
there service is not consistent and god forbid you ever try to cancel
your service. better yet why don't you try to call them now and tell them
you want to cancel even if you don't have the service. it is nearly
impossible to get intouch with someone.

nextel sucks ballz and so do you if you think nextel is so great. there
was a special on fox news about trying to cancel the service. also
some charges on the phone which are not real fees. - by nextel
sucks!!!!!!!!

verizon vs. nextel (8:29pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
Doesn't reverse engineering violate the DMCA? You're going to tell me
(anyone!) that I have no right to know how something works, how it was
made, or what it is made of, what effects it has? I don't think so. - by
mdjoint

Another dead zone i forgot about.... (8:34pm EST Mon Jun 30 2003)
Fricken western mass. Highly agrivating to loose service on route 2,
and I91...ah yes, another.....the Far side of Fort drum NY. - by Goober

Nextel blows (12:26am EST Tue Jul 01 2003)
I have a nextel phone, and it lacks many features that i would love to
have. 1. no irda. 2. no bluetooth. 3. no symbian, palmos, or ppc. 4. no
faster than 9.6k(not even 14.2k) web speeds when i connect it (with a
larga cable) to my hp 2215. 5. no screens beyond 256 color. 6. high
prices for service, web, and phones. (my father pays $50 per month for
my phone w/ 300 min, aim, web.) 7. suck a** signal in many spots in
the chicago land area. 8. no support for non motorola phones.
9. bad tech support and sms spam.

I saw let 'em get sued and maybe i can get my father to switch my to
attws with a t68i or the nokia with the camera and bt! - by iNOMAD

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Get A Free Psychic Reading! Your Online Answer To Life's Important Questions.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Lj3uPC/Me7FAA/ySSFAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/