Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Trends in Press-to-talk Technologies

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 05:59:05 -0500

Trends in Press-to-talk Technologies
JANUARY 21, 2004 1:00PM ET

Craig Farrill

Join Kodiak Networks CEO Craig Farrill for a January 21
BigTalk discussion on trends in press-to-talk technology.
A proven usage and revenue driver, P2T is one of the
hottest wireless technologies for 2004. U.S. subscribers
now can choose from several competitive offerings, and
the service could soon become popular in Europe, too.

What type of user experience is crucial to P2T’s success?
How can carriers deploy and market P2T most effectively?
What should subscribers and carriers know about latency
issues? How will P2T work across multiple networks and
nations? What role will standards play in P2T’s
development? Tune in at 1:00 pm Eastern time to ask
these questions and more.

Craig Farrill serves as CEO of Kodiak Networks,
specializing in packet-switched, wireless voice systems for
carriers worldwide. Well known for his role in pioneering
CDMA technology, Farrill and other wireless and
networking luminaries formed the San Ramon, Calif.
company in 2001. He is the former CTO of Vodafone,
AirTouch and PacTel and has 28 years of experience
leading wireless businesses.

Please note: BigTalk discussions are editorially moderated. Guests reserve the
right to choose or decline specific questions.

BigTalk Discussions

Craig Farrill: Happy 2004 to everyone! Welcome to today's Big Talk. 2004 is
already off to a fast start here in week three. It is a pleasure to be with you
today and I look forward to your questions and dialogue. Today we will be
focusing on the exciting developments in voice communications and what the
trends are likely to be in the future. Let's begin... (By the way, before we
jump
in, if you would like more information on my background or company, Kodiak
Networks, please go to www.kodiaknetworks.com for further information.)

Ray Marching from Detroit MI: What customer problem does press-to-talk solve
and how will your approach make it possible for a carrier to differentiate their

services from Nextel?
Craig Farrill: I see a number of unmet customer needs that P2T can solve. First
is the ability to instantly communicate one-to-many. Second, an equally strong
need, is to see who is available to receive a call now--call availability. In
today's
busy lives, people are more involved in work, social, recreational and other
group
activities than ever before. Group communication needs have not been
effectively addressed by existing wireless services or systems.

Merry Vinson, Seattle, WA: Could you please define "availability"? How does that

differ from "presence"? What is the advantage of "availability"?
Craig Farrill: Good question. There is a big difference here. Put simply,
"presence" is the indication that a customer's phone is switched "on" or
switched
"off." Availability comes more from the Internet instant text messaging
model--indicating not only that a customer's phone is "on," but also whether the

customer is available to receive a call right now. Availability can include
multiple
different conditions or levels of availability, such as "do not disturb," "in a
meeting," "traveling," or "on holiday."

Storm Hightower Philadelphia Pa: How will P2T work across multiple networks and
nations? Is there a standard set be to used for all mobile service providers or
is
it to each his own?
Craig Farrill: There are two general approaches to enable P2T delivery across
nations and networks: a voice channel or data channel approach. For the voice
channel solution, P2T service can utilize existing network standards for GSM and

evolving standards for UMTS networks. For the data channel solution, P2T service

likely will be based upon emerging push-to-talk over cellular (PoC) standards as

part of the Open Mobile Alliance.

Azita Arvani, Santa Monica, CA: Craig, Given the fact that every major operator
has launched, is launching or "evaluating" PTT service, how long do you think an

operator can hold on to "premium" pricing? What do you estimate the PTT pricing
to be in US in 2004 and in Europe in 2004? Thanks, Azita
Craig Farrill: My feeling is that pricing for P2T will range widely. Instant
real-time
services will command premium pricing. Non real-time, chat-style services will
likely carry a discount to standard cellular voice.

Bill, San Diego, CA: Hi Craig - What are your expectations for which segments
will
adopt rtx services in the U.S.? Business people? Consumers? Will there be
significant traffic between wireless and wireline users?
Craig Farrill: We see P2T as very horizontal in nature in addressing consumers
and business. Primary reason for that is all of us are interested in instant
communication. With regard to wireline-wireless users, that is a possibility for

voice channel-oriented solutions.

Neel Dhamdhere, Sunnyvale, CA: Is P2T perceived as a business application or
more as a consumer application?
Craig Farrill: Both! I see non real-time services developing for the consumer
market at a lower price point. In critical business applications, real-time
communications is a necessity. The focus will be on one-to-many group
communications as a value driver for customers.

Johen Bogot, San Francisco, CA: How can the new Press to talk technologies be
successful with the long lead times?
Craig Farrill: Actually, at least two commercial systems are available today if
you
look at Verizon and Sprint. Are you referring to long call set-up times?

hank, IL: The RTX P2T solution from Kodiak claims a call setup time of ab 3.5
seconds. Do you have a roadmap to improve on this further to equal if not beat
Nextel's call set up time which Nextel claims to be their USP amongst the
various
PTT providers.
Craig Farrill: Yes, we have a roadmap for improvement on GSM and CDMA. We
anticipate we will be able to continue to bring initial call set-up times down.
Our
experience to date indicates that the more important variable is call volley
latency. There we lead the industry with 150 milliseconds, compared to 700 ms
for Nextel, a difference of five times.

Pete Fox, Chalreston, SC: I have heard that the Kodiak solution is far less
latent
that the Verizon and Sprint solution. How does Kodiak's approach differ from
that
of the others? Will these two be interoperable? ie, if an Alltel P2T user roams
into
a Verizon territory?
Craig Farrill: Kodiak uses a packet switch to accelerate voice traffic through
the
voice network. Motorola's solution utilizes a shared data channel. Alltel
roamers
will be able to make P2T calls outside Alltel's territory on any roaming
partner's
network. This is enabled by a Kodiak roaming gateway feature.

John, San Francisco, CA: Isn't Kodiak running a big risk (limited subscriber
adoption) by offering a proprietary solution and not participating in the POC
standard ? How do they intend to compete against industry heavyweights like
Nokia and Ericsson who are driving the POC standard?
Craig Farrill: This is a common misunderstanding. The Kodiak solution leverages
existing industry standards from the wireless, Internet and computing worlds and

is a more open and inclusive approach to P2T calls. For example, wireline
phones, Internet phones and non-P2T phones can participate in a Kodiak group
call, but this is not possible with iDEN or PoC data solutions. In addition to
its
unique service, Kodiak also will support PoC-based P2T as the standard becomes
available. Carriers using the Kodiak solution will have the benefit of both.

Henry, New York, New York: What should subscribers and carriers know about
latency issues?
Craig Farrill: From a customer perspective, latency is one of the most important

aspects of P2T service. Delays in conversation interrupt and disturb our ability
to
communicate with each other. Premium P2T solutions will be those with the
lowest latency--they deliver the most instantaneous form of communication.

Storm Hightower Philadelphia Pa: Do you forsee a day when a person is able to
call someone over seas using P2T?
Craig Farrill: That day was a week ago Tuesday, when Orange launched its
service! I had the privilege of watching Orange make an overseas call between
France and the UK during its service launch Jan. 13.

Laura Leff, Oakland, CA: How many customers really want to be that "available"?
We all know how disruptive a ringing phone can be in a business meeting or
movie theatre, and a PTT application would be just that much more disruptive.
It's OK on a construction job site or possibly for the youth market, but what
about the rest of the customer base?
Craig Farrill: The power of the availability feature is enabling the customer to

communicate his/her availability to selected people. As with most cell phones
today, availability allows the user to mute the ringer and control the
loudspeaker
in the handset to avoid disturbing others. As the saying goes, in general,
technology is not rude. People are rude. P2T has the controls to allow people to

be respectful and polite in any setting.

Mike Thomas, Providence RI: Does the service require a specialized client? If
so,
when will the service be available on mainstream handsets (not just
smartphones)?
Craig Farrill: For CDMA and GSM networks, there are four ways that the Kodiak
handset software can be enabled: 1) embedded in manufacturing, 2) Symbian
client, 3) Palm OS and 4) Java. Or the Java, Symbian and Palm OS clients can be
flashed into some handsets or downloaded over-the-air in others.

Satocco, New York: Good afternoon. In the USA, NXTL, Verizon Wireless, Sprint
PCS and ALLTEL has started P2P service, I think. Is it more difficult for GSM
carriers to launch P2P service? If so, what is the point?
Craig Farrill: No, it's not more difficult for GSM carriers to launch P2T
service. GSM
P2T technology got a later start than CDMA and will be arriving later this year.

Michael G from Cleveland, OH: Do you forsee wireless providers working together
to support Press-to-Talk from their network to a competetor? Could the Kodiak
solution perhaps work with Nextel's solution?
Craig Farrill: This flexibility is part of the Kodiak solution. Our system is
able to
bridge across P2T networks with different radio access. This bridging can be
done
within a carrier's networks or between multiple carrier networks.

george, San Francisco: Kodiak solution will be using valuable timelsots of
operator network. How do you justify this solution for operators?
Craig Farrill: Experience shows that P2T calls average 20-30 seconds, compared
with 100-160 seconds for average cellular calls. Being able to process 2-3 P2T
calls per minute, which may have multiple parties, produces a high-revenue
opportunity for the operators and is a more efficient use of the voice network
than longer cellular calls or P2T over a data channel.

Bernie McKibben: Do you see most of the P2T traffic comprising point-to-point or

group communications?
Craig Farrill: In our experience, one-to-one calling represents the majority of
P2T
traffic. It's about 70/30. However, group communication, one-to-many calls,
represent a much higher revenue opportunity for the carrier.

Ryan, Chicago, IL: Looking at other wireless providers offering PTT services
like
Verizon and Sprint how will your service be different. Can you explain how the
service will compare to Nextel where the delay is less and not have the problems

like the other companies?
Craig Farrill: We have had several questions on this topic. I encourage you to
visit the www.kodiaknetworks.com Web site, Solutions section, and download the
White Paper on this topic. The differences are substantial!

Ron White, Newbury, MA: What are the key differentiators between Kodiak's
offering and Nextel's PTT?
Craig Farrill: Ron, we have a table in the White Paper mentioned above that
addresses the key differentiators.

Jim Orange Co CA: Craig- Which carriers use your product?
Craig Farrill: Orange will use our GSM system across 22 countries. Alltel offers

availability of Kodiak-based CDMA P2T service beginning tomorrow. Kodiak is in
discussions with many other operators as well.

BigTalk: We apologize that some questions will not get answered. However, with
the large number of questions still in the queue, Mr. Farrill has agreed to
extend
this BigTalk session by a few more minutes. Thanks for your participation.

Russ, Phoenix, AZ: With the Kodiak Network press-to-talk solution, do the voice
packets circumvent speech transcoding in the network? More specifically, could
arbitrary data potentially be passed through this system without transcoder
interference and thus benefit from the real-time nature of the underlying voice
channel as well?
Craig Farrill: Good catch! Yes, the Kodiak system avoids transcoding of voice
packets. This results in P2T calls being the highest quality calls on the
network.

Andy, Santa Barbara, CA: Craig, the GSM community is working on a standard for
PTT service so it will work accross networks. So far the "standard" appears to
be
for VoIP services using GPRS, since you PTT system uses a voice channel instead
are you going to be able to be compliant with this standard?
Craig Farrill: Yes, Kodiak intends to add PoC capability to its systems so it is
fully
compliant with the emerging standard. Again, this will enable carriers to offer
premium, real-time P2T service as well as non real-time PoC services.

Peter, Chicago, Illinois: In the group communication mode, how big can the
group be and how quickly and easily can one set up a group?
Craig Farrill: The typical maximum size that we have seen is 50. The Kodiak
system is capable of sizes larger than that if desired by the carrier.

Rich Carmel, NY: Are there any plans by manufacturers to develop standalone
PTT-only devices? (Small pocket or wrist watch size) If so who are they? Also,
will
carriers open the door for resellers to promote the product?
Craig Farrill: The smallest devices we're aware of are very small pocket phones
from a number of the major manufacturers. We have not seen a wristwatch-sized
product in this area. We expect a wide range of P2T handsets from premium
prices like the Treo 600 down to very compact, entry-level handsets for the
consumer market.

Craig Farrill: Viewers--We have a great deal of interest today with many
questions still in the queue. So we'll keep going for another 15-20
minutes.--Craig

Fotis Bazakos, Minneapolis, MN: With Alltel coming on as the fourth PTT
provider,
using a third unique solution, is there any effort being made to make these PTT
networks interoperable? Obviously the iDEN solution needs to go away, but VoIP
seems to be the future, and with higher speed lower latency wireless data
networks (EV-DO release A) coming nationwide in 2005, do you see the RTX
maturing into a full VoIP solution instead of circuit based?
Craig Farrill: By implementing the Kodiak solution, Alltel has enabled its
customers to be served with P2T across its entire territory and outside the
territory as a roamer. Regarding a full voice VoIP solution, the Kodiak system
is
based on an all-IP, high-speed packet switch and is fully upgradable to
interfaces with future wireless networks, such as UMTS.

David Ringler - Mankato, MN: Nextel's Direct Connect service is immediate as I
understand it, but non-iDEN networks have latency issues on the PTT service.
What effect does the increased latency have on the customer communication and
customer satisfaction?
Craig Farrill: iDEN and Kodiak are real-time, P2T services with minimal latency.

Other VoIP over cellular solutions have latency in the SECONDS, which delays
conversation. I see the services dividing into real-time and non real-time P2T
services in the future.

Azita Arvani, Santa Monica, CA: Craig, In your opinion, why has Asia been
relatively quiet about PTT so far and how do you see that changing in the
upcoming months? Thanks, Azita
Craig Farrill: Asia has the potential to be the world's highest user of P2T
service.
With hundreds of millions of people needing telephone service in China, the
possibility of introducing P2T service there and expanding the customer carrying

capacity of existing GSM and TDMA networks is very promising. I believe the
uptake in Asia will be very rapid as P2T systems are introduced there.

Ben, NY, NY: Hi Craig, how would you rate the significance of IM / SMS
convergence as regards P2P communications and mobile services?
Craig Farrill: It seems to me that convergence of IM/SMS demonstrates the value
of instant communications. With the advent of MMS services, combining multiple
media, P2T systems will be both a source and a destination for voice instant
messages to/from those systems.

Don Greene, Dallas, TX: Kodiak has been using the term "renaissance in voice
services." What does this mean? How does it change the value proposition for
the wireless customer?
Craig Farrill: Over the past five to seven years, the wireless industry has
exerted
a strong effort in enabling networks to mvoe data and images. At the same
time, the majority of industry revenues continue to flow from voice services. It

seems to us that increased industry efforts in voice services will further
expand
revenues and increase customer interest in wireless services and products. For
example, new voice capabilities, such as instant voice conferencing and
real-time
availability, provide attractive benefits for wireless customers.

Greg B. (Chicago, IL): Will the Kodiak P2T solution support priority access
functionality for the public sector segment?
Craig Farrill: Good question! It's estimated that government employees
represent about 5 million people in the United States. We see P2T service as
highly applicable to the vast majority of those employees. We have trialed P2T
services with law enforcement agencies and received positive feedback.

Sean Harris, Kansas City: Craig- Do you see the future of P2T on every handset
introduced to the market?
Craig Farrill: A large percentage of handsets in the future will have P2T
capability,
certainly greater than 50%.

Frank - Seattle, WA: Can you please share with us all the questions you decide
not to answer here ? - A faq on the Kodiak web site would be great !
BigTalk: Interesting suggestion. I think time will be the culprit in questions
not
getting answered.
Craig Farrill: I'm told the technology enabling this program doesn't allow it.

S Jones, Austin, TX: What do you see as the key attributes of P2T on which
customers will make their decision to buy P2T, and how will they decide which
provider?
Craig Farrill: Three things come to mind: 1) a fully integrated service enabling

them to retain all the benefits of their existing cellular service and add
instant
P2T calling, 2) the ability to see who's available in real time and 3) group
instant
voice and messaging communications.

Craig Farrill: Everyone--We are an hour and a half into the Big Talk program and

there are still many questions left in the queue. If I didn't get to your
question
today, please visit www.kodiaknetworks.com and download our White paper. If
you have other questions, please email me through my office, care of
[email-masked]. I strongly believe that we stand at the beginning of a
renaissance in voice services, a time of renewed innovation and customer
interest in wireless. By embracing new wireless voice technologies for cellular
networks, suppliers, carriers and customers will all benefit from integrated
high
performance, feature-rich voice services, including P2T. The future of wireless
is
bright! Thanks for participating--Craig

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=big_talk_discussion&talkid=361
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