Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel to up U.S. 'push to talk' range

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2003 13:24:26 -0400

Nextel to up U.S. 'push to talk' range 

The wireless phone company is set to begin a three-month scramble to expand the
range of its popular DirectConnect walkie-talkie feature from coast to coast. 

U.S. wireless phone company Nextel Communications is set to begin a three-month
scramble to expand the range of its popular DirectConnect walkie-talkie feature
from coast to coast.

Initially, only Nextel subscribers in Boston, Los Angeles and Florida will be able
to use Nationwide Direct Connect, which the company plans to introduce Monday. But
a rapid-fire expansion is planned, with subscribers in San Francisco, New York,
Baltimore and Washington, D.C., being added to the mix by June 16, the company
said. By August, Nextel intends to include every city and market that it covers.

The service will cost $10 a month for unlimited use, or Nextel subscribers can pay
on a per-minute basis, according to the company.

Nationwide Direct Connect is an example of "push to talk" (PTT), which creates a
direct connection between cell phones--eliminating the need to dial a number and
wait for a network connection. Other carriers plan competitive services by the end
of the year. Most of Nextel's 11 million customers are mobile professionals; rival
services will probably be more focused on the consumer market.

For the past 10 years, Nextel has exclusively offered PTT in North America. But
its range was never more than a few hundred miles at a time. The company is now
making it possible for the PTT conversations to travel on its Internet protocol
backbone, used to ferry regularly dialed calls between cell phone base stations
and broadcast antennas sometimes thousands of miles apart.

"We can travel from Hawaii to New England in the same (time)--or less--(that) it
takes to connect between San Francisco and San Jose," said Drew Caplan, Nextel's
vice president of network services.

AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless are all planning competing PTT
services, which should debut sometime late this year or early in 2004. But
according to sources, the three carriers are having trouble with an important
aspect of the service called "latency," or the time it takes for the calls to
travel these great distances. Nextel's average latency is a second, Caplan said.
Other carriers' setups have been slower by as much as five seconds in tests,
according to sources.

"We're confident that Sprint will have a competitive offer later this year," said
Sprint PCS spokesman Dan Wilinsky. "It's odd that people would be speculating
about...our product, because we haven't announced any details yet."
Nancy Stark, a Verizon Wireless representative, said her company "will offer a
competitive product" when it debuts sometime this year. She refused further
comment.

AT&T Wireless spokesman Ritch Blasi said his company's service may leapfrog the
reach of Nextel's once it debuts in 2004. AT&T Wireless has roaming agreements
with 30 international carriers, so it can offer a PTT service that reaches around
the world, not just across the United States, Blasi said. Nextel is exploring
whether to offer a global version of its PTT service.

Merely a blip on the carriers' radar screens now is Fastmobile, a Chicago-based
newcomer that has created a way for cell phones without a built-in PTT feature to
make these calls, anyway. The company has begun selling a service for $10 a month.
It's available to any AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile or Cingular Wireless subscriber who
owns either a Nokia 3650 or a Sony Ericsson P800 handset.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/cnet/stories/1011687.htm
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