Verizon Wireless Sues Nextel
The battle over "push-to-talk" is really heating up as Nextel is going to lose their monopoly on the feature. However, when Verizon Wireless found out that Nextel had somehow obtained a prototype of their "push-to-talk" system, they flipped out, and called in the lawyers. They're now suing Nextel for improperly obtaining the prototype and then illegally accessing the Verizon Wireless network to test them. Considering that they'll be launching the service in a week or so, it's unclear how much "damage" this actually did to Verizon. Also, there's no indication how they improperly obtained the devices. Update: A more detailed version of the story says that Nextel used the tests to share negative information about the service with an analyst who negatively influenced industry reviews of their offering. So, in that case, the charges could be a bigger deal. Still... if the service really is bad, then suing Nextel isn't going to change that.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team