According to an IDG News report, rumors abound that Sprint Nextel Corporation is considering spinning off or selling its Nextel group. Nextel was acquired by Sprint less than three years ago. 

The Wall Street Journal has reported that a company known as Cyren Call (founded by Nextel’s founder, Morgan O’Brien) is seeking investors to acquire Nextel and turn at least part of it into a wireless network for public agencies, such as police and fire departments, and for other public safety uses.

The public and safety agencies are part of a non-profit group known as the Public Safety Spectrum Trust, which was awarded 10MHz of wireless spectrum by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission that is part of the 700MHz analog band left open for public use as U.S. television broadcasters migrate to the digital spectrum in 2009.

The merger of Nextel and Sprint was worth $35 billion and gave Sprint Nextel a subscriber base of roughly 44 million mobile customers. However, Sprint Nextel has not reported stellar financial results and there has been speculation that the combined entity could be sold as a unit or parceled out to an interested buyer. 

In Sprint Nextel’s reported net revenue for Q4 of 2007 its numbers were $9.8 billion, down from $10.4 billion for the same period in 2006. Sprint Nextel’s Q1 2008 financials are due on May 12th.