Nextel's selling point was that it allowed Nextel subscribers to call other Nextel subscribers(via "push to talk") without incurring per minute charges(this was in the days before unlimited plans.)
It was the phone of construction and maintenance crews since it was basically a "walkie talkie." It wasn't a premium brand at all.
>"I'd love to see a citation for this, because it doesnt jive with my own memory."
But they were priced like a high-tier carrier, I was their customer at the time (and worked in the telecom industry), and while you got unlimited Direct Connect (and they also had plans for free incoming) you paid significantly more for it - but you also got better customer service too (something which Sprint badly munged in the merger). Also, pretty much every carrier in 2004-7 had free mobile to mobile minutes, so I don't think the free calling thing as big as you might make it out to be - the selling point of direct connect was that it was push to talk, and not a phone call.
The other thing I'll note, having been in over 1000 cell sites for each of the carriers, the Nextel sites were 'gold plated' build outs, they were very clearly not built on a budget (almost all indoor sites (mostly in andrews shelters), most sites had a generator on site, much more extensive grounding, higher performance power systems, over provisioned power and backhaul for future expansion) - the only other carrier that comes close to this is Verizon.
Nextel's selling point was that it allowed Nextel subscribers to call other Nextel subscribers(via "push to talk") without incurring per minute charges(this was in the days before unlimited plans.)
It was the phone of construction and maintenance crews since it was basically a "walkie talkie." It wasn't a premium brand at all.
>"I'd love to see a citation for this, because it doesnt jive with my own memory."
I think you mean "jibe with your memory":
http://the-penultimate-word.com/2012/06/23/jibe-or-jive-comm...