The long awaited CDMA upgrade for the Nextel walkie-talkie service, being called Sprint Qchat, might be on the verge of making a public appearance in Q1 of 2008. New images have even appeared of a Sanyo device which is said to integrate the Qchat service. The CDMA-enabled Direct Connect replacement will operate over Sprint’s EVDO Rev A data network, which will interconnect both Nextel and Sprint users for Direct Connect conversations.
If you’re not quite sure what Direct Connect is, you’ll probably know it better by those little “chirps” you hear, while seeing users talk into their phones walkie-talkie style. Nextel has had issues keeping customers since their merger with Sprint. Qchat is planned to help keep the loyal Nextel user base, while improving the service.
