To the Editor:
Regarding “A Look at Nextel’s Bones” (Letters to the Editor, Dec. 3, 1999), the evidence would suggest Mr. Jones’ conclusions about Nextel and Morgan O’Brien’s speech to the Radio Club of America are not based in fact.
With respect to Nextel’s dealings with SMR operators whose licenses it acquired, Mr. Jones claims Nextel “took over” the channels, “gutted” the companies and “left them to twirl in the wind.” Mr. Jones left out one major point: Nextel paid top dollar to willing sellers to acquire these frequencies. When the Wall Street Journal profiled Nextel in 1994, its reporter interviewed three operators who had sold out to Nextel. Their quotes in the Journal: “They (Nextel) offered good money;” “They rounded the price in just a kind of nonchalant manner to a figure that was 20 percent higher than what I could expect;” and “They were more than fair.”
Mr. Jones may not agree, but there are thousands of Nextel employees, hundreds of former SMR operators and millions of Nextel customers who are benefiting from Morgan O’Brien’s vision.
Jack Markell
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