Here Comes the Walkie-Talkie Cell Phone

The four major national cellular carriers in the United States plan to offer walkie-talkie-type push-to-talk service, which is currently provided only by Nextel Communications. Both Sprint PCS Group and Verizon Wireless plan to introduce the service this year.

Spokespeople for Sprint PCS, in Overland Park, Kansas, and Verizon Wireless, in Bedminster, New Jersey, declined to identify the technology the companies plan to use to support push-to-talk--a service that allows cell phone subscribers to just push a button and be immediately connected to another subscriber in a predefined group.

But AT&T Wireless Services in Redmond, Washington, and Cingular Wireless, in Atlanta, indicated Monday that they intend to support push-to-talk functionality with IP-based technology under development by Nokia, Ericsson, and Siemens.

Making Connections

Nokia, Ericcson, and Siemens announced Monday at the 3GSM World Congress in France that they intend to use the capabilities of IP Multimedia Subsystems developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project, which is the global standards body for mobile telecommunications. This technology allows cellular and mobile carriers to deliver integrated voice and data services over IP-based General Packet Radio Service networks.

Rod Nelson, chief technology officer at AT&T Wireless, said in a statement that his company "supports this joint initiative. Our goal is to connect our customers to the people and information they care most about."

Mike Dobbs, vice president of product management at Cingular, said in a statement "the standards-based approach taken by these manufacturers will allow carriers to ultimately deliver this service to the largest market in the most efficient and effective way." Ericsson, Nokia, and Siemens said they plan to begin trials of the new push-to-talk service in the second half of 2003.

Coming Soon

Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless, both of which use the Code Division Multiple Access 1xRTT standard, could well offer push-to-talk service to their subscribers during or even before the start of those trials.

Dan Wilinsky, a spokesperson for Sprint PCS, said his company intends to offer walkie-talkie service later this year. He declined to identify the start date for the service or the type of the technology the carrier will use.

Jeffrey Nelson, a Verizon Wireless spokesperson, said his company will also offer push-to-talk technology this year, but didn't specify a start date or the technology to be used.

Craig Mathias, an analyst at FarPoint Group in Ashland, Massachusetts, called push-to-talk technology a "phenomenon like instant messaging that will drive wireless sales" to both consumers and enterprises. While Nextel has numerous enterprise customers who use push-to-talk to support dispatch operations, Mathias said widespread use would allow enterprise customers "to instantly call someone down the hall."