Subject: [NEXTEL-1] No need for answer button for friends, co-workers to chat

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 07 Sep 2003 03:13:25 -0400

No need for answer button for friends, co-workers to chat 

By Mike Langberg
September 06, 2003

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 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 ultracompact 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). 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) 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
prepaid wireless service in California and Nevada called Boost Mobile
(http://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 between now and 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, 2004, customers signing up for PTT will still get unlimited
one-to-one calls, but group PTT calls will cost the originator 15 cents per
minute, 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://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001715959_ptpushtalk06.html
http://www.verizonwireless.com

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