Customers to Save Substantially While Traveling
                        Digital Subscribers Top 300,000

    McLEAN, Va., Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- In an unprecedented move in the
wireless industry, Nextel Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq-NNM: CALL) today
introduced a national digital network and announced it won't charge roaming
fees for its customers traveling anywhere on the digital network. The Nextel
National Network now covers major metropolitan areas where more than half the
U.S. population lives and works, including most major metropolitan areas.
    Nextel also announced today an increase in the number of digital
subscriber units to 300,300 at the end of 1996, with revenue per unit on the
new PowerFone_ sustaining high levels ($75.00 per PowerFone unit, compared
with a reported average of $48.00 per unit for conventional cellular).  In the
fourth quarter alone, Nextel added 72,300 digital customers.
    "This is a major step forward for our company and the wireless industry,"
said Daniel Akerson, Nextel chairman and chief executive officer.  "The true
power of the Nextel National Network is that every market is like the
customer's home market.  A majority of cellular customers today either leave
their phones at home or don't use them when they travel for fear of being
charged excessive roaming fees.  With the Nextel National Network, we're
simply giving our customers another good reason to consider our service an
indispensable business tool."
    The Nextel National Network will enable Nextel's digital cellular
customers to travel throughout the company's markets and have their cellular
calls, calling features and home airtime rates follow them.  Unlike
traditional cellular and PCS users, Nextel customers will not be charged
roaming fees or need to dial complicated codes when outside their home service
areas.  Plans call for the Nextel National Network to cover 85 percent of the
U.S. population by the end of 1998.
    Other cellular carriers typically charge roaming fees to customers who
travel outside their home area and use -- or "roam on" -- a competitor's
cellular system.  Conventional cellular customers often are charged expensive
system access fees and higher per-minute airtime rates when roaming.  Some
systems even require a 10-digit roaming code to reach a cellular customer
roaming in a city outside the customer's home area.  Nextel also offers long
distance at a single flat rate.
    Nextel customers can experience significant savings while traveling on the
Nextel National Network.  A Chicago customer using a Nextel phone while
traveling, for example, can save up to 54 percent, compared with a cellular or
PCS competitor's service.
    The Nextel National Network works like this:  Nextel's digital customers
can make and receive calls while traveling in New York or Los Angeles or any
one of 50 major metropolitan areas in 26 states and the District of Columbia.
In addition to their digital cellular calls and home rates, a customer's
calling features such as short message service (alphanumeric paging over the
phone) and voice mail follow them nationally as well.
    "The ability to have your digital cellular home rates follow you across
the country without any additional complicated charges or codes is something
we expect our customers to embrace.  It will be very significant when coupled
with a network that eventually will cover over 85 percent of the U.S.
population," Akerson said.
    Tom Kelly, Nextel's vice president of marketing, said, "Nextel is creating
a clear-cut point of difference in a powerful national network that removes
the word 'roaming' from the customer's vocabulary.  Customers using the Nextel
National Network will never see that dreaded roaming light come on."  With the
recent selection of Boston-based Mullen as the company's national advertising
agency, a significant corporate positioning and branding effort is underway
with launch scheduled for the end of the first quarter.
    "People are going to realize that there are not just two cellular carriers
in each of America's markets and a PCS provider or two on the horizon,"
Akerson said.  "We're here with a truly differentiated technology that works
well and the funding to back it up.  1997 will be a big year for Nextel."
    Nextel rolled out a new generation of its digital cellular service in six
major U.S. markets -- Chicago, Boston, Denver, Atlanta, Detroit and Las Vegas
- in the fourth quarter of 1996.  The company will continue its aggressive
roll-out of the new Motorola iDEN (integrated digital enhanced network)
technology and introduction of Nextel's iDEN PowerFone(TM) in the first half
of 1997.  The company's earlier generation digital service is running in
markets that cover more than half of the U.S. population.  Instant
conferencing currently is available only within customers local geographic
region.
    Nextel Communications, Inc., based in McLean, Va., is the nation's leading
provider of fully integrated wireless communications with the largest licensed
geographic footprint of any wireless carrier in North America.  The company is
focused on providing business telecommunications customers the ability to stay
in touch with wireless services that go Beyond Cellular by combining the power
of digital cellular communications with push-to-talk two-way radio or "instant
conferencing" service and messaging into a single phone that maximizes
customers' business productivity as well as personal security and convenience.
    Nextel, PowerFone and Beyond Cellular are trademarks and/or service marks
of Nextel Communications, Inc.  Motorola and iDEN are trademarks of Motorola,
Inc.

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