Party lines Push-to-talk service (TRUELY AMAZING HOW ONE CAN CHARGE MORE FOR SOMETHING THAT SAVES YOU MONEY (the wireless carrier) DJF)

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

PTT makes much more efficient use of the limited spectrum since it can use 
more efficient coding etc.  djf



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 (<http://www.verizonwireless.com>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 (<http://www.vzwpushtotalk.com>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 (<http://www.nextel.com>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 
(<http://www.boostmobile.com>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.

Contact Mike Langberg at <mailto:mike () langberg com>mike () langberg com or 
(408) 920-5084. Past columns may be read at 
<http://www.langberg.com>www.langberg.com.



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