Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Innovations allow walkie-talkies to reach across nation

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2003 22:39:04 -0400

Innovations allow walkie-talkies to reach across nation

DAN ESHELMAN , Staff Writer 07/28/2003

 - Technological innovations have transformed cell phones into digital
walkie-talkies, allowing users to communicate instantly over great distances.
Technological innovations have brought walkie-talkies out of the realm of
government operatives and military personnel and placed them into the palms of
ordinary individuals.
Digital cordless phones now have the capability of transmitting messages directly
from one caller to another across great distances.

"The business applications, as well as the lifestyle advantages that this product
offers, are unparalleled," said Andrew Burns, general manager of Nextel Partners
Inc., which provides telecommunications services in the Council Bluffs-Omaha
metropolitan area."

The company recently introduced a feature - a first in the industry - called
Nationwide Direct Connect. It gives customers an instant connection via long-range
walkie-talkie with other Nextel users who might be thousands of miles away.
To mark the launching of the feature, Michael Salmi, director of emergency
services for the Heartland Chapter of the American Red Cross, made a walkie-talkie
call from the Nextel Partners office in Omaha to the Red Cross national
headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"For an organization such as the Red Cross, which has to coordinate responses to
emergency situations wherever they occur in different parts of the country, the
ability to communicate quickly is essential," Burns noted. "A direct connection
through a digital walkie-talkie can aid in efforts to give assistance to people
who require it." In the business world, the walkie-talkie feature of a wireless
phone can revolutionize how employees in a company share information, he said. "It
can eliminate the need for inter-company long distance calling," he said. "Staff
members can simply contact each other with the walkie-talkies."

The process is also much faster than the conventional method of dialing a number,
letting the phone to ring and waiting for someone to answer the call. In Nextel's
feature, which has the official name of Push-To-Talk®, a connection is made in
less than a second with a button that is located on the side of a Nextel phone.

"You don't have to wait a long time for the phone to ring on the other end of the
line," Burns said. "With the walkie-talkie, you simply push the button and you get
instant communication." Such a direct link can greatly reduce, if not remove
altogether, the need to leave voice mail messages. "There is a great deal of time
saving that can be achieved when you don't have to listen to several messages in
order to get important information," Burns said.

Nextel's feature includes a "call alert" that lets someone know that he or she is
the intended recipient of an incoming signal.
The alert sends a series of chirps to the person's phone, or a buzz and a beep if
the phone's ringer is turned off. The contact can respond immediately or call back
later at a more convenient time. "The alerts are also helpful when you don't know
where your contact is located," Burns said. In addition, he said, the feature will
"continue to alert your contact until he or she answers back. That way, there's no
question about not getting a call."

A VirbaCall® feature allows users who have turned off their phones during a
meeting or at an entertainment or social event to be contacted with a discreet
buzz from the device. Frequently called numbers can be stored in the phones, then
accessed quickly whenever a contact needs to be reached. Aside from the advantages
it provides to businesses, the Nextel feature offers benefits to families as well,
Burns noted.

"It allows easy contact among family members, and it could be especially valuable
in emergency situations," he said. "Just be pushing a button, you are instantly
connected."
The feature's capabilities during emergencies also makes it appropriate for law
enforcement agencies, Burns said. Nextel's service is supported by a new
technology from Motorola - iDEN, or integrated digital enhanced network.

"There are actually four components in one system," Burns said.
They are a digital cellular voice feature; the long-range digital walkie-talkie
feature; a wireless data and messaging service; and an alpha-numeric pager.
According to industry analysts, the sub-second call set-up time and always-on
instant communication of Nationwide Direct Connect® are the cornerstones of
Nextel's proprietary offering.

"Nextel will be the benchmark by which competing offers will be judged, and the
latency delays [of competing services] will be a difficult hurdle to overcome,"
said Jane Zweig of The Shosteck Group, an independent telecommunications
consultancy based in Wheaton, Md.

The versatility of digital phones have been expanded by advances in what is termed
spread spectrum technology, which has broadened the radio bandwidth through which
calls converted to computer code are sent over the airwaves.

In spread spectrum systems, a free signal is sought over a much larger area than
what is targeted by standard digital phones. A call moves rapidly from one channel
to another until an open one is found, a procedure that helps ensure a clear
transmission.
Stronger frequencies with spread spectrum delivery reduces interference and
improves voice quality, and the signal is not affected by other electronic
equipment such as computers or microwaves.

Spread spectrum technology also encrypts voice messages, scrambling them so that
eavesdropping on calls is extremely difficult.

Further security is provided by special codes that can be entered into the phones,
preventing the devices to be activated by unauthorized individuals.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2554&dept_id=513967&newsid=9912780&PAG=461&rfi=9

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