In 1986, Sprint led all U.S. telecom companies by completing the first 100% digital fiber optic network. By 1987, Nextel established itself as a force in the world of wireless communications with acquiring Dial Call and OneComm; it also acquired all of Motorola's SMR licenses which are basically mobile radio. In 1993, Sprint and Centel became a provider of local wireless and long distance phone services.

In 2005, Sprint and Nextel completed their merger. The strength of Sprint Nextel is, since the merger, the company now has more market share than it did before. Their main consumer market is that of cell phone services. Services of the company include nationwide services; direct connect walkie-talkie services, IP broadband, internet ready phones, and smart devices. A smart device for example is a phone with GPS, Bluetooth capabilities and operating systems. The company is connected to countries around the world and has introduced wireless data solutions.

A company like Sprint Nextel has a lot of opportunities in their market. Sprint Nextel has form alliances with various other companies such as Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard, IBM, and Nortel Networks. Based on research on this company I think their next opportunity is Voice over IP or VOIP. With eBay's recent acquisition of Skype, it seems that this market for VOIP is about to really take off. I think it's in Sprint Nextel's best interest if they got into this arena as well such as partnering with Vonage for example.

Currently Sprint Nextel and Avaya are in early talks of partnerships at the moment. Even though Sprint Nextel is a well established company, a SWOT analysis also consists of weaknesses and threats. A weakness to Sprint Nextel is when the two companies merged, they dealt with two separate networks so it will take time to integrate both. Due to the merger, Sprint Nextel has to move personnel from place to place to adjust for its new employees and moving equipment around can sometimes cause trouble as well.

Even though the two companies have become more powerful by merging, there are always threats to every company out there, Sprint Nextel is no exception. Threats come in the form of competition, which are Research in Motion LTD, American Tower Corp and WebEx Communications. Sprint Nextel being a solid company, has I believe more strengths and opportunities than weaknesses and threats. It must be with constant determination to excel.