Sprint Nextel on Tuesday reported that will begin phasing out the Nextel network as early as June 30, 2013. While the long-term plan had already been announced, Tuesday marked the first time that actual dates for shutdown had been discussed. This move will eliminate the signature walkie-talkie feature of Nextel phones. Sprint has already begun adding phones with a similar push-to-talk feature, with other connectivity technologies replacing the bandwidth-heavy iDEN in an effort to discourage push-to-talk users from leaving the network..
