Nextel Extends Flarion Trial

RESTON, Va. -- Nextel Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTL) announced today that the coverage area of its wireless broadband trial, now branded as Nextel Wireless Broadband(SM) service, has more than doubled since first launching in February 2004. The coverage area is now approximately 1,300 square miles and extends to Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and other neighboring communities. This expansion follows several initial success indicators from the trial, including measuring network speed, performance and customer response. The service will also begin accepting paying customers.

"The data speeds of the Nextel Wireless Broadband service are significantly faster than other wireless broadband offerings," said Scott Ellison, program director, wireless and mobile communications, IDC. "Much like how wireless phones began replacing landline phones once performance became similar, we expect much greater demand for wireless broadband service now that speeds are comparable to DSL and cable broadband connections, with the additional benefit of access while on the go."

Nextel Wireless Broadband service is 50 times faster than dial-up connections and is accessible via laptop and desktop computers as well as PDAs. It offers typical downlink speeds of up to 1.5 megabits per second (mbps) with burst rates of up to 3.0 mbps. Typical uplink speeds are up to 375 kilobits per second (kbps) with burst rates of up to 750 kbps.

Nextel Wireless Broadband service is now commercially available at affordable rates to any of the more than one million people who live or work in the coverage area. It can be ordered online, via phone or at local Nextel retail stores. A local marketing and advertising campaign will begin this week to promote the service.

Nextel's wireless broadband trial is also unique because it offers turn-key bundled ISP services in addition to access, including multiple e-mail accounts (up to seven), online disk storage (up to 70 megabytes) and website traffic (up to 300 megabytes per month). Additionally, it offers public, private and static IP addresses.

High User Satisfaction

Until now, Nextel's wireless broadband trial was limited to a test group that included local employees of Cisco Systems, Inc., Nortel Networks and IBM among others. These users have provided very positive feedback about the value of the service, including quality and performance.

"Nextel Wireless Broadband service is allowing me to be remote, be productive and be highly accessible to my team and my clients. My job is very demanding and requires 24-7 access to the Internet and to our remote support infrastructure. Furthermore, many aspects of my job require that I leave the office to increase my productivity. I can even work from my favorite coffee shop with speeds comparable to a cable modem," said Matt Brown, a Nextel Wireless Broadband service trial user and director of enterprise integration and database operations, MercuryMD, Inc.

"Nextel Wireless Broadband service follows me wherever I go with the immediacy and speed that are critical for my work. For example, Nextel Wireless Broadband service allowed me to instant message a six-megabyte presentation directly from my car after I received an urgent request. I parked on the side of the road in the midst of gridlock traffic, pulled out my laptop and easily sent the presentation within minutes," said David Stafford, a Nextel Broadband service trial user and IT analyst, Cisco Systems.

Nextel Communications Inc.