Sprint sells push-to-talk technology to New Jersey company

Sprint Corp. has sold its unwanted push-to-talk network spectrum to a New Jersey company led by two former Nextel Corp. executives.

Pacific DataVision Inc. said in a statement Tuesday that had received approval from the Federal Communications Commission to acquire all of Sprint’s 900 MHz wireless spectrum licenses, which is essentially network capacity.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Sprint, based in Overland Park, declined to comment on the transaction.

The Patterson, N.J. company said it now is the only nationwide licensee of spectrum “focused on launching a state-of-the-art two-way radio network” for businesses. The network will be built in major metropolitan markets beginning next year using Motorola Solutions’s digital radio technology, Pacific said.

Pacific’s chairman, Brian McAuley, and vice chairman, Morgan O’Brien, were co-founders of Nextel Communications, which was acquired by Sprint in 2005. The merged company became known as Sprint Nextel Corp.

Nextel was a leader in push-to-talk technology, which was a popular service for certain business customers. However, the merger ran into trouble early on, and Sprint ultimately phased out the push-to-talk business.

Pacific said it raised $218 million in equity financing for the spectrum transaction and for its network buildout. As part of the sale, Sprint received $10 million of the spectrum purchase price in the form of Pacific’s common stock.

The Star

This story was originally published September 16, 2014 at 3:15 PM with the headline "Sprint sells push-to-talk technology to New Jersey company."