FierceWireless' Fierce 15 2004 winners: Where are they now?

Back in 2004, Nextel Communications was the darling of Wall Street with its high-ARPU, low-churn enterprise and public-safety customers who loved the company's iDEN-based, Direct Connect push-to-talk service.

Because of Nextel's successes, PTT (the walkie-talkie radio service of pre-cellular days) suddenly became an intriguing concept that cellular carriers wanted to mimic. Lured by the potential of high-ARPU customers, Sprint, Verizon and others investigated ways to mirror Nextel's service over their own cellular networks. And firms like Kodiak Networks, fastmobile and Sonim Technologies (all Fierce 15 winners [16]) offered PTT solutions that made them appealing choices for the Fierce 15 award.

[16]Of course, today we know that PTT never really lived up to the dream. Although carriers like Verizon and AT&T deployed PTT services and still offer them today, it never became the must-have service that many envisioned. And when you have a product based upon a vision that doesn't live up to expectations, companies are forced to evolve or risk becoming obsolete. Some of our Fierce 15 winners evolved, some didn't.

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--Sue [17]