Motorola Nextel I860

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Mohammed Faerber

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Aug 3, 2024, 11:39:06 AM8/3/24

to gaconafing

Please Note: None of this information should be considered authoritative. It was gathered while I researched the feasibility of picking up a few old Nextels to use as off-network walkie-talkies.

The feature is also known as MOTO Talk. Boost and SouthernLINC typically disable the feature on their phones. The feature is independent of carriers (since it bypasses towers), but can be disabled in the handsets, as those providers have been known to do.

I have two i335 and a i465 (aka Clutch). I have used Boost sims in the Nextel phones for DirectTalk mode. The trick is getting Nextel phones, and getting the SIM card that goes with the phone. Boost SIM vs. Nextel SIM has nothing to do with it.

just to update folks, the i615 does not have the direct talk feature, i bought a set of 10 and found out the hard way,lol, its not even there in the rss so it has not been disabled, its just not in the firmware for this phone.

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both mention it, but was hoping someone out there has first hand info. Also, what about the i686? (The newer Brute) I know this is an old posting on this forum, but any help is greatly appreciated. ?

Since the motorola nextel i530 was issued to our Dept. back in 2004? We were never able to use the PTT off network or away from nextel tower connectivity. We had a call into the nextel tech staff to advise us how to enable this feature but we were told that it didnt have the capability. I would love to know how to make this work even if I have to rip the board out & solder a external antenna? Sprint,virgin mobile, boost & southern Linc WILL NOT let you hook up old nextel phones.

Can anyone confirm that the 7100i and the 8350i Blackberry models released for Nextel will work with the Direct Talk walkie talkie feature for the one mile estimated distance through line of sight. I only need the walkie talkie/direct connect functionality not to hook it up with any cell network for other features. Thank you in advance for any assistance.

The underlying technology is called iDEN, so you might search for that. It seems like [Southern Linc]( ) still has service, but only in a couple states. The old Nextel network bought out by Sprint [has been shut down]( -its-dead-jim-sprint-iden-has-finally-been-shut-down) for several years.