Sprint Customers Share the Benefits of Nextel Direct Connect

Nextel Direct Connect can be used to enhance fleet management for a variety of industries. “We have recognized many benefits with Direct Connect, from enhanced communication to cost reductions. In some areas we have removed the traditional radio communication and replaced them with phones featuring the Direct Connect service,” said Bryan Mlika, Sr. Manager of Technical and Quality Operations, AAA Auto Club South. “It allows our drivers to contact the dispatcher instantly, and reduces costs associated with installing AAA radios in the trucks. It’s a very fast and efficient method to dispatch calls at a much lower cost. In addition, traditional UHF/VHF voice did not allow us to have transitional voice communication and in cases of disaster a dispatch position that used VHF/UHF voice would have lost contact with all drivers using that frequency.”

Jeffrey Godwin, vice president of towPartners, added, “Nextel Direct Connect has been a primary communications tool for the towing industry since the time it was introduced. Instant, two-way communication affords towing companies the ability to quickly dispatch their assets wherever and whenever needed. Add in the ruggedized handsets that Sprint offers and you have a service that can’t be beat. No other service is as fast, as reliable or as cost efficient as Direct Connect.”

In addition, Centex, one of the nation’s largest home builders and winner of the 2007 J.D. Power and Associates Platinum Award for Excellence in Customer Satisfaction, notes the significant benefits experienced with Direct Connect by the construction industry. “Managing the construction of hundreds of homes that are in different stages of construction can be a daunting task,” said Scott Richter, executive vice president of Operations for Centex. “Especially when you are coordinating with multiple trade partners for each job. Sprint helps meet our communications requirements through the use of Direct Connect. Nextel Direct Connect allows us to instantly communicate with our managers and trade partners, making us more efficient. That’s good for us, our trade partners, and our customers.”

Nextel Direct Connect can be vital for communications between family members as well. For example, ask mother, wife and full-time multi-tasker Wendy Baber where her family would be without their push-to-talk service and you get a hurried one-word answer: “lost!” Keeping tabs on her daughters at school, work, and basketball practices, and her husband and his two businesses, is made easier with Nextel Direct Connect. “It’s the first thing I put on my desk at work and it’s there for me all day,” she said.