It is commonly said that Nextel uses the 800MHz band in the United States. While it is true that their system does operate (mostly) within the 800MHz range, it does not use the same frequencies as the "Cellular" 800Mhz band.

The FCC does not regard Nextel as a "Cellular" carrier, but rather as an SMR (specialized mobile radio) carrier. Therefore, Nextel uses the 800MHz SMR band, which consists of the frequencies approximately between 806-825MHz and 851-870MHz. (The overlap between these frequencies and the Cellular frequencies does not actually exist, and only appears due to rounding error.)

The use of this frequency range gives Nextel the advantage of better signal coverage due to the lower frequency (than PCS systems), while still being able to provide service in areas where both of the 800MHz Cellular frequency allocations are already in use.

When Cellular and PCS companies receive a frequency allocation, they generally receive one or more large contiguous chunks of frequencies. This is not the case with Nextel. Nextel receives licenses one 25KHz channel at a time. This can sometimes cause problems for other users of SMR frequencies, such as police and fire departments. Since their channels can be interspersed very closely with Nextel's channels, interference between the Nextel transmissions and the (usually analog) police/fire transmissions can occur. Nextel, the FCC, and various police and fire departments have been working to try to resolve this situation, but they have not yet reached an agreement that is acceptable to all three parties.