Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Carriers Disagree Over Push to Talk

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2003 17:38:03 -0400

Carriers Disagree Over Push to Talk
BY BRAD SMITH
JUNE 19, 2003

NEW YORK CITY -- Push to talk may be on the horizon for the nation's largest
carriers, but that doesn't mean they all agree on its utility and market. That was
evident today during a panel session on enterprise mobility during the CeBIT
America trade show.

Representatives of T-Mobile USA, Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless all agreed that
push to talk can be an important network utility. But that's about as far as the
agreement went.

Peter Grubb, assistant business development director for Verizon Wireless, said
the carrier will offer push to talk later this year but views the capability as a
complement to its total package of enterprise offerings. Push to talk is a
feature, not a solution, he said.

Jason Guesman, business development director for Sprint, disagreed. He said Nextel
Communications has proven that enterprises want push to talk and Sprint views it
as a 'critical application' for its network. He said Sprint will be very
aggressive in promoting push to talk when it launches it later this year.
Frank Ramirez, business products director for T-Mobile, said the GSM carrier sees
push to talk as both a feature and a solution but that in the long-term, it will
be necessary for there to be inter-carrier roaming. 'Otherwise it is just a way
for a carrier to tie an enterprise down,' he said. 'Enterprises don't want
artificial boundaries.'

At that point, both Guesman and Grubb disagreed, saying they don't believe
inter-carrier push-to-talk roaming is necessary.

When it comes to push to talk, you might say they all agreed to disagree.

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=newsat2direct&starting=1&pubdate=06/19/03

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