Subject: [NEXTEL-1] U.S. Probes Nextel, Motorola, Verizon Walkie-Talkie Data

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 03:48:30 -0500

U.S. Probes Nextel, Motorola, Verizon Walkie-Talkie Data

Wednesday, Febuary 25, 2004 09:53 PM ET

The antitrust division of the Department of Justice has asked Nextel
Communications Inc.  (NXTL, news), Motorola Inc. (MOT, news) and Verizon
Wireless for information about the walkie-talkie service over cellular
networks that Nextel has dominated for the past decade, Thursday's Wall
Street Journal reported.

The Justice Department first
started making inquiries after a
flurry of lawsuits last summer
between Verizon Wireless and
Nextel relating to the "push to talk"
service. Those requests were
repeated in the past few weeks.

A Nextel spokeswoman confirmed
the company had been asked for
information by the Justice
Department, but she wouldn't
provide further details.

This wouldn't be the first time the Justice Department has examined
Nextel and Motorola (MOT, news), which supplies most of the push-to-talk
equipment to Nextel. In 1994, the Justice Department filed an antitrust
case alleging an agreement between the two companies would have reduced
competition. The following year the department settled its case through
a consent decree.

The latest inquiries come as the Federal Communications Commission
weighs whether to grant a request by Nextel to reallocate radio-wave
spectrum, which its rivals charge would give the carrier a windfall of
valuable airwaves.

Nextel's dominance in the popular push-to-talk market is a source of
envy for its competitors, which sought for years to develop a competing
service over their networks.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. The Justice
Department's inquiries were reported Wednesday by Bloomberg News.

Wall Street Journal Staff Reporters Jesse Drucker, Almar Latour and Anne
Marie Squeo contributed to this article.

Dow Jones Newswires
02-25-04  2153ET

http://www.quicken.com/investments/news_center/story/?story=NewsStory/dowJones/20040225/ON200402252153001358.var&column=P0DFP