Nextel Communications Inc., in partnership with NII Holdings Inc. and Telus Mobility, a subsidiary of Telus Corp., announced the availability of International Direct Connect walkie-talkie service. This service provides under-a-second digital walkie-talkie connections between the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Peru as well as between the United States and Canada. Nextel U.S. subscribers traveling in these countries can now also benefit from data services, including BlackBerry and mobile e-mail, two-way messaging and wireless Web access. Nextel and NII Holdings also plan to launch International Direct Connect service in Mexico this summer.
“Nextel is taking instant walkie-talkie service beyond international borders with ranges of 7,000 miles. International Direct Connect is nothing short of a wireless industry milestone,” said Tom Kelly, executive vice president and COO, Nextel. “International Direct Connect walkie-talkie service is especially appealing to our customers who conduct cross-border business in critical regions such as Canada, which is the United States’ largest trading partner, in industries such as transportation, financial services and manufacturing. It is also of particular interest to our Spanish-speaking subscribers with ties to Latin America.”
"Manufacturers' businesses don't stop at the border and neither should their ability to communicate wirelessly," said Leslie Baker, vice president of manufacturing for Nextel. "Now, Nextel allows manufacturers to get e-mail and instantly communicate with their supply chain from the Artic Circle to South America. With International Direct Connect, an industrial engineer or line manager in Toronto can use Direct Connect to talk instantly to an office in the United States."
International Direct Connect walkie-talkie service provides the same exceptional performance as Nextel’s Nationwide Direct Connectwalkie-talkie service with connection speeds under one second. It is an expansion of Nextel’s current coverage in northern Baja California, Mexico, which launched with NII Holdings in September 2003, making Nextel the only cellular provider in the United States to offer cross-border walkie-talkie service. In 1992, Nextel was the first cellular service provider in the United States to offer digital walkie-talkie service.
Nextel, NII Holdings and TELUS Mobility operate on Motorola’s iDEN (integrated Digital Enhanced Network) technology, which provides superior digital voice quality, security, reception and reliability.
For more information, visit http://www.nii.com/, http://www.telusmobility.com/ or http://www.nextelpartners.com/.
