Is TELUS abandoning the Mike Network?

[WorldIRC]

I wonder what Telus will do...I mean, Telus is losing their roaming partner for MIKE in the USA (Sprint Nextel)...and Bell has an exclusive with both Sonim and Kodiak (the developer of the PTT solution).

[frankie5string]

I wonder what Telus will do...I mean, Telus is losing their roaming partner for MIKE in the USA (Sprint Nextel)...and Bell has an exclusive with both Sonim and Kodiak (the developer of the PTT solution).

Geez, Kodiak is still around? I remember theorizing with the rest of the wonderers about the type of back-end Bell would use for their anemic 10-4 service years ago. I thought Kodiak moved beyond PTT and into data and provisioning stuff.

I tried the Alltel system (which was Kodiak based) and it was much quicker and more stable than what Bell chose for their 10-4 system.

Anyway, that MiKe spectrum, as far as I know, can't be used for anything but ESMR. They can't simply pull it into the PCS range without having Industry Canada re-badge it right?

I wonder how many active PTT connections MiKE is processing an hour now.

[bmccull]

Well for the first time since the takeover of Clearnet that I can remember, Telus has issued a clear statement on the future of the MiKE network. As you may have heard Sprint has announced the shutdown of their iDen network by June 2013 or maybe December 2013.

Today’s Sprint announcement is as expected and we have received a 12 month notice to this effect from Sprint-Nextel. The Sprint iDEN turndown has no impact on the vast majority of our Mike base, and we are confident that our U.S. and international roaming capabilities on HSPA/LTE offer a great alternative for clients for whom roaming is an important business need.
TELUS currently has no plans to turn down our own iDEN network, but will evolve from the Sprint-Nextel iDEN partnership to launch a Push to Talk solution on LTE well before any shutdown of Mike. TELUS is focused on developing LTE as a high speed data network with built-in Quality of Service and low latency perfectly suited for Push to Talk over IP, rather than launching interim solutions currently available on HSPA.

More info here.

[frankie5string]

That's a pretty ballsy way for them to admit they have virtually no roaming traffic running from MiKe to Nextel.

I remember the huge deal that was made when Nextel and MiKe made direct trunk connections across the borders for DC and phone service. I bet those links rarely get pulled into use anymore.

They could probably get Kodiak to engineer some sort of gateway between the LTE and the MiKe system if they really wanted to.

[bmccull]

That's a pretty ballsy way for them to admit they have virtually no roaming traffic running from MiKe to Nextel.

I remember the huge deal that was made when Nextel and MiKe made direct trunk connections across the borders for DC and phone service. I bet those links rarely get pulled into use anymore.

I am surprised to hear that. Most of our use is with our own units travelling in the States or México. We also connect with Florida based Nextel customers operating in Vancouver.

[Dylan Poulson]

I just got a i576s for work. Its a beast.