Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Push to Talk being pushed in the wrong direction?

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 09:41:32 -0500

Thursday, March 25, 2004
Push to Talk being pushed in the wrong direction?
Darren Ellis, PC Authority

OPINION: PC Authority was recently given a demonstration of ‘Push to
Talk’ -- new mobile phone technology -- by Telstra. While the technology
is simple, intuitive and obvious, I can’t help but feel that even months
away from launch Telstra is going to miss hitting its most important
target market by not even addressing them as potential consumers.

Push to Talk technology is rather simple -- it’s a button on the side of
a mobile phone that temporarily turns it into a walkie talkie. The
phones look identical to existing handsets. Unlike a mobile-to-mobile
phone call, there’s no dial-up or connection time -- the conversation is
immediately broadcast when the talk button is depressed, exactly like a
walkie talkie. Similarly, only one person can talk while the transmit
button is depressed, although conversations can be broadcast to many
people.
As with Instant Messaging, users define groups for conversations and
these need to be pre-accepted by participating parties before broadcasts
can begin. Multiple groups can be pre-defined or constructed in an ad
hoc fashion.

While Push to Talk will have its detractors, there’s no denying that
it’s an innovative technology. Part of this innovation is that, unlike
walkie talkies that broadcast radio frequency with a limited range, Push
to Talk digitises and packetises your voice over existing mobile phone
CDMA and GPRS networks.

This means that Push to Talk can be always on (if you wish) and, most
importantly, that it can work over vast distances. It’s possible, for
instance, to have a Push to Talk conversation between a person based in
Perth and another in Sydney.
The downside is that the nature of sending digital communication
introduces a lag between communications of a few seconds, much like a
bad overseas landline phone call. This, more than anything, could
already be the death knell for what is an excellent concept.

However, Telstra is trying to lend an air of legitimacy to Push to Talk
tech by stating that it’s going to be great for business. What business?
Taxi companies, couriers, and other businesses with roaming staff. But I
think Telstra really needs to take stock of who uses mobile phones and
technology, because it’s in danger of missing out on its largest
potential user group for Push to Talk -- the youth market.

It’s no secret that young people are responsible for the amazing uptake
and proliferation of SMS, and something like Push to Talk just screams
youth market to me. In fact, although I can see the broader, more
legitimate usage of Push to Talk it’s the youth market that’s going to
get this technology exploding off the shelves.
But the challenge test could be in how Telstra decides to price the
service. The company was extremely coy in discussing this with us, and
would not tell us whether it would be a monthly charge on top of the
phone rental, or a user-pays system. Whatever Telstra decides, Push to
Talk will have to be cheap to succeed in today’s market.

This article is available at www.itnews.com.au/storycontent.asp?ID=18858

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