Sprint and Nextel have announced plans to merge. My response?

…

Really, this is going to be VERY amusing at best, and nightmarish for Sprint and Nextel customers at worst. The AT&T Wireless-Cingular merger is already off to a rought start, and the technology used by both networks is the same.

So imagine the dilemna to come: Basically two cell phone companies that run two different networks that are probably as incompatible with each other as you can possibly get (no one has ever made a phone for Nextel that can roam on Sprint, nor vice versa) have decided to turn themselves into a single unified mobile phone network. And they expect to close the deal in less than a year.

Riiight.

Official announcement from both companies appears here. Quite a rosy picture they paint too. We will see if the expectations they put forth can be lived up to.