As promised, Sprint has shut down the company's iDen network, putting a period to the ugly sentence that was the company's highly dysfunctional acquisition of Nextel. The shutdown leaves behind a significant chunk of ESMR 800 spectrum to be used for Sprint's LTE network upgrades. According to a recent company statement, iDen's shut down will also leave behind some 100 million pounds of cell site rubish, nearly all of which Sprint promises will be recycled. "Sprint will gut hundreds of cell sites of obsolete iDEN equipment -- from radios to server racks, antennas to air conditioners -- and will stage it all for recycling vendors," says the company. "Most concrete shelters that house iDEN cell sites will be crushed and turned into composite for roads and bridges. Sites where CDMA and LTE equipment is co-located will be left intact, minus the iDEN gear."