Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Party lines Push-to-talk service connects networks of friends, family or co-workers

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 04:58:32 -0400

Posted on Thu, Aug. 28, 2003

Party lines Push-to-talk service connects networks of friends, family or
co-workers

By Mike Langberg
Mercury News

Push-to-talk could be the biggest upgrade to mobile phones since wireless service
first became affordable a decade ago.
With push-to-talk, also known as PTT, callers organize a group of co-workers or
friends. By pushing a button on your phone, everyone in the group can hear you
simultaneously and immediately, without having to hit the green ``answer'' button.

On Aug. 18, Verizon Wireless became the first mass-market wireless carrier to
offer PTT; the only PTT provider previously was Nextel, which mostly aims at
business users.

Three of the four other national wireless carriers are promising PTT soon: Sprint
PCS by the end of this year, Cingular Wireless early next year and AT&T Wireless
by the middle of next year. Only T-Mobile, for now, is refusing to join the PTT
parade.
PTT can be a little hard to grasp at first. You can think of PTT as making mobile
phones into walkie-talkies, where everyone on the same frequency hears each other
and only one person can talk at a time.

I prefer to think of PTT as instant messaging for voice, in the same way regular
phone calls are the equivalent of electronic mail.
E-mail is usually a one-to-one form of communication, and you don't know if the
person on the other end will be there when you hit the send button. Phone calls
are also one-to-one, and you don't know in advance whether the other person is
available to answer.

Instant messaging, or IM, shows a list of your online buddies and indicates which
are signed on at that moment. You can then start IMing one buddy or set up a chat
group among several buddies. With the new PTT service from Verizon Wireless
(www.verizonwireless.com), an icon on the phone's screen indicates which of your
PTT contacts have their phones turned on, and you can launch either one-to-one or
group conversations.

Not that PTT is going to change the world overnight; it's too expensive. Verizon
Wireless, like Nextel, is aiming PTT at business users who can afford $20 extra on
their monthly statements. And there's only one model of phone compatible with
Verizon Wireless PTT: the Motorola V60p at $149 with a two-year contract for new
customers or a two-year contract extension for current subscribers.

But there's no reason not to believe PTT monthly fees will come down, while many
-- and eventually perhaps all -- mobile phones will be PTT-ready.

Here's how PTT works with Verizon Wireless:

Motorola's V60p is a standard ultra-compact flip phone; the only visible
difference is a small black PTT button on the left side. When you push the PTT
button, you see the list of your PTT contacts. Using up and down arrow keys, you
highlight the individual or group you want to call. Then you push and hold the PTT
button, wait about two seconds for a beep that confirms the connection, and start
talking.

At the other end, everyone in your group hears a notification beep and then your
voice. If the V60p is set in speakerphone mode -- recommended for PTT
communication -- you'll be heard clearly even if the phone is clipped to a belt or
purse strap.
When you finish talking and remove your finger from the PTT button, everyone else
hears another beep. The next person to press his or her PTT button gets to
respond. Someone else in the group hitting the button a second later gets a busy
signal beep and has to wait.

Setting up PTT contacts is handled online, through a password-protected Web page
(www.vzwpushtotalk.com). You go to the site and enter the phone numbers of people
you know who also have PTT phones, and then organize those contacts into groups.

You could set up a group for family members, another for friends, a third for one
project at work and a fourth for another work project. One person could appear in
several groups, and there's lots of room to expand -- Verizon Wireless allows a
maximum of 150 PTT contacts in 50 groups, with each group holding as many as 10
contacts.

However, you can only participate in a single person-to-person or group
conversation at a time. If others try to make a PTT connection while you're
talking, their phones show you as busy.

I tested PTT with two colleagues at other newspapers owned by Knight Ridder,
parent of the Mercury News: Les Suzukamo, a technology reporter at the St. Paul
Pioneer Press in Minnesota, and Heather Newman, a technology columnist at the
Detroit Free Press in Michigan.

The three of us, all using Motorola V60p phones borrowed from Verizon Wireless,
conducted three group discussions on three different days. After adjusting to the
two-second pause required before starting to talk, and the need to wait for the
other person to finish before responding, I found it easy to launch and
participate in group PTT discussions.
We did encounter a few glitches; the Web site for setting up PTT contacts was down
for a few hours one afternoon, and one of our chat sessions got mysteriously cut
off twice. But these are most likely the rough edges common to new wireless
services, and will get resolved quickly.

I particularly enjoyed knowing in advance if Les and Heather had their phones on
or off, a feature technically called ``presence.'' I hope Verizon Wireless makes
presence into a separate feature; I'd gladly pay several dollars a month to know
if the people in my phone's address book are available to receive my calls.

Nextel (www.nextel.com) works much the same way, although Nextel phones don't tell
you whether contacts are available and the response time is quicker -- about one
second instead of the two seconds for Verizon Wireless. Under the brand name
Direct Connect, Nextel's PTT is widely used by workers who spend most of their
time in the field, such as construction crews, firefighters and appliance repair
people.

A carpenter on a big job site could hit the PTT button to ask, ``Who has more
16-penny nails?'' Seven other carpenters would hear the message, and the one with
the most extra nails could reply. Nextel is relatively small, though, with just
11.7 million subscribers, and has never been particularly successful at selling
its service to consumers -- in part because its rates are higher than its bigger
competitors.

In a clumsy bid at the youth market, Nextel and a partner have launched a pre-paid
wireless service in California and Nevada called Boost Mobile
(www.boostmobile.com) that includes PTT. But the rates for regular phone calls are
so high -- 25 cents a minute at all times -- that I can't recommend Boost Mobile
to anyone who can qualify for monthly service with another carrier.
Verizon Wireless, on the other hand, is the largest wireless carrier in the United
States, with 34.6 million customers and far more skill at marketing new services
to consumers.

For now, as I said, Verizon Wireless is aiming PTT at business users willing to
pay premium prices. The company charges $20 a month on top of existing rates; the
least expensive PTT plan is $59.99 a month and, except for PTT, is identical to
the regular $39.99 plan providing 400 anytime minutes along with unlimited nights
and weekends.

Anyone signing up for PTT from Verizon Wireless from now until the end of this
year gets unlimited one-to-one and group PTT calling for as long as they maintain
the account; regular phone calls are charged the same as with non-PTT phones.
After Jan. 1, customers signing up for PTT will still get unlimited one-to-one
calls, but group PTT calls will cost the originator 15 cents per person contacted.
In other words, a group call you start with three other people would cost 45 cents
a minute; the people on the other end still pay nothing.

I'm not sure if PTT is a feature I'd use regularly, and I don't know how fast my
friends or co-workers will acquire PTT-ready phones. What's more, it's likely to
be at least several years before PTT works between different wireless carriers.
But I'm also convinced PTT isn't just for business; I can easily see PTT becoming
a very popular way for people to reach out to family and friends.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6637702.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

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