[LOGO] Nextel Communications, Inc.
1505 Farm Credit Drive
McLean, VA 22102
703 394-3000
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Media: Bob Ratliffe (206) 979-4254
Analysts/Investors: Paul Blalock (703) 394-3500
Nextel Introduces National Wireless Network with No Roaming Charges
-Customers to Save Substantially While Traveling-
-Digital Subscribers Top 300,000-
McLean, Va. - January 14, 1997 - In an unprecedented move in the wireless
industry, Nextel Communications, Inc.(NASDAQ: CALL) today introduced a national
digital network and announced it won't charge roaming fees for its customers
traveling anywhere on the digital network. The Nextel National Network now
covers major metropolitan areas where more than half the U.S. population lives
and works, including most major metropolitan areas.
Nextel also announced today an increase in the number of digital subscriber
units to 300,300 at the end of 1996, with revenue per unit on the new PowerFone
(TM) sustaining high levels ($75.00 per PowerFone unit, compared with a
reported average of $48.00 per unit for conventional cellular). In the fourth
quarter alone, Nextel added 72,300 digital customers.
"This is a major step forward for our company and the wireless industry," said
Daniel Akerson, Nextel chairman and chief executive officer. "The true power of
the Nextel National Network is that every market is like the customer's home
market. A majority of cellular customers today either leave their phones at home
or don't use them when they travel for fear of being charged excessive roaming
fees. With the Nextel National Network, we're simply giving our customers
another good reason to consider our service an indispensable business tool."
The Nextel National Network will enable Nextel's digital cellular customers to
travel throughout the company's markets and have their cellular calls, calling
features and home airtime rates follow them. Unlike traditional cellular and PCS
users, Nextel customers will not be charged roaming fees or need to dial
complicated codes when outside their home service areas. Plans call for the
Nextel National Network to cover 85 percent of the U.S.
population by the end of 1998.
Other cellular carriers typically charge roaming fees to customers who travel
outside their home area and use or "roam on" - a competitor's cellular system.
Conventional cellular customers often are charged expensive system access fees
and higher per-minute airtime rates when roaming. Some systems even require a
10-digit roaming code to reach a cellular customer roaming in a city outside the
customer's home area. Nextel also offers long distance at a single flat rate.
Nextel customers can experience significant savings while traveling on the
Nextel National Network. A Chicago customer using a Nextel phone while
traveling, for example, can save up to 54 percent, compared with a cellular or
PCS competitor's service.
The Nextel National Network works like this: Nextel's digital customers can make
and receive calls while traveling in New York or Los Angeles or any one of 50
major metropolitan areas in 26 states and the District of Columbia. In addition
to their digital cellular calls and home rates, a customer's calling features
such as short message service (alphanumeric paging over the phone) and voice
mail follow them nationally as well.
"The ability to have your digital cellular home rates follow you across the
country without any additional complicated charges or codes is something we
expect our customers to embrace. It will be very significant when coupled with a
network that eventually will cover over 85 percent of the U.S. population,"
Akerson said.
Tom Kelly, Nextel's vice president of marketing, said, "Nextel is creating a
clear-cut point of difference in a powerful national network that removes the
word `roaming' from the customer's vocabulary. Customers using the Nextel
National Network will never see that dreaded roaming light come on." With the
recent selection of Boston-based Mullen as the company's national advertising
agency, a significant corporate positioning and branding effort is underway with
launch scheduled for the end of the first quarter.
"People are going to realize that there are not just two cellular carriers in
each of America's markets and a PCS provider or two on the horizon," Akerson
said. "We're here with a truly differentiated technology that works well and
the funding to back it up. 1997 will be a big year for Nextel."
Nextel rolled out a new generation of its digital cellular service in six major
U.S. markets - Chicago, Boston, Denver, Atlanta, Detroit and Las Vegas - in the
fourth quarter of 1996. The company will continue its aggressive roll-out of the
new Motorola iDEN (integrated digital enhanced network) technology and
introduction of Nextel's iDEN PowerFone in the first half of 1997. The company's
earlier generation digital service is running in markets that cover more than
half of the U.S. population. Instant conferencing currently is available only
within customers local geographic region.
Nextel Communications, Inc., based in McLean, Va., is the nation's leading
provider of fully integrated wireless communications with the largest licensed
geographic footprint of any wireless carrier in North America. The company is
focused on providing business telecommunications customers the ability to stay
in touch with wireless services that go Beyond Cellular by combining the power
of digital cellular communications with push-to-talk two-way radio or "instant
conferencing" service and messaging into a single phone that maximizes
customers' business productivity as well as personal security and convenience.
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Nextel, PowerFone and Beyond Cellular are trademarks and/or service marks of
Nextel Communications, Inc. Motorola and iDEN are trademarks of Motorola, Inc.