[wingkey1]

Cingular & Apple will be announcing an initiative with an anticipated ipod / cell phone combination device from Apple.

Nextel continues to rely notably on devices from Nokia. Nokia is seen by analysts as "behing the technology curve".

Then there's the following -



Sprint Nextel lost 300,000 customers in 4th quarter

Company says it is cutting 5,000 jobs — stock takes a plunge

Updated: 7:19 p.m. ET Jan 8, 2007
RESTON, Va. - Sprint Nextel Corp. reported Monday that its cell phone business suffered a net loss of 300,000 monthly subscribers in the fourth quarter and that the struggling wireless company will cut 5,000 jobs.
The company's stock plunged more than 8 percent after the financial update, which included a 2007 outlook shy of many Wall Street forecasts.
- net decline of 306,000 direct subscribers driven by a continuing exodus of Nextel subscribers amid frustration over worsening service quality. The Sprint brand subscriber base grew during the quarter, but not enough to offset the Nextel drop.

[Quality88]

I can hear the gears turnin in Brian France's head as I type this.

[wingkey1]

Originally Posted by Quality88

I can hear the gears turnin in Brian France's head as I type this.

Yeah man. And now that the Cingular name will soon be dropped and most likely be replaced by AT&T Wireless ----

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by wingkey1

Yeah man. And now that the Cingular name will soon be dropped and most likely be replaced by AT&T Wireless ----

It can't be replaced with AT&T, Wing. When NEXTEL took RJR's place as Series sponsor they froze out every other wireless sponsor. Cingular was "grandfathered in," but when that name brand pulled out, it was gone for good, or as long as NEXTEL is NASCAR's main sponsor. If you will remember, MB2 had a chance to bring Bell South up to full sponsorship for Joe Nemechek (his long-time BGN sponsor) and Roush was about to ink a deal for sponsorship from another wireless Co. but NEXTEL nix'd both deals.

As I understand it, when AT&T absorbs the Cingular name, IF it wishes to continue to pay RCR $20 million/yr to have their name on his rolling billboard, they'll have to feature some item or service which isn't in direct competition with NEXTEL. I have no idea what that would be.

The WSJ says the switch will be effective sometime this summer and by that time I'd say, unless Richard wants to foot the bill himself, or unless he can come up with a photo of the NEXTEL CEO in a compromising position, he'd better be for finding another sponsor.

Don't you just love it when big business gets incestuously entwined with your favourite sport?