Sprint yesterday announced plans for its next-generation push-to-talk to service, which will bring fully functioning “walkie-talkie” service to its CDMA network as well as link up with Nextel’s successful PTT service, reports Telephony.
Sprint will use Qualcomm’s QChat solution over its EV-DO revision A network which has the speed and QoS necessary to support end-to-end VoIP. While Sprint’s VoIP plans beyond push-to-talk are unclear, the carrier has committed to using VoIP over Rev. A in 2008 as the only way to deploy to robust push voice service that can match that of standard-bearer Nextel’s. Voice is sent as data on the EVDO channels and the increased upstream speed of Rev A makes it practical.
Nextel’s PTT specification is based on Motorola’s iDEN, an older mobile radio specification. Both Sprint and Verizon Wireless opted for a Motorola solution, developed by softswitch-maker Winphoria, but performance of the technology was poor with long delay times in initiating a talk session.
Nextel’s Direct Connect, their Push-to-Talk (PTT) service, is used by 90% of Nextel’s 20 million subscriber base. It boosts a “hang time”, or the period between activating a connection and actually making the connection, noticeably shorter than using Voice over EVDO. iDEN uses speech compression and time division multiple access TDMA to share a cellular channel. It uses TDMA technology to split a 25 KHz frequency into six separate time slots. Using a combination of half-duplex and full-duplex signals,
Sprint selected Lucent Technologies to develop software and infrastructure for the new deployment, while Qualcomm provides the core technology on the handset.
Lucent has been working closely with Qualcomm, having recently conducted trials of the QChat technology over Lucent equipment Rev. A in the Sprint network using pre-production handsets.
Motorola and Nortel are also part of Sprint’s EV-DO 3G rollout and will presumably upgrade those networks to Rev. A, which in turn will need to be optimized for QChat. In addition, Motorola is the sole provider and developer of iDEN technology and any integration with its legacy PTT architecture will likely involve the vendor, says Telephony.
Another route to PTT might be PCTEL’s Voice-Enabled Roaming Client software. It works on dual mode mobile handsets to enable end-users to seamlessly roam between cellular and Wi-Fi networks. The software allows subscribers to have a single telephone number to make and receive voice calls on traditional CDMA- or GSM-based cellular networks or on broadband wireless networks, such as Wi-Fi networks, using VoIP. In addition to voice telephony, the software supports access to SMS (Short Message Service) and Voice Mail.
Motorola and Sprint also announced the RED phone, a RAZR phone designed to support (RED), an initiative founded by Bono and Bobby Shriver to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund. The Global Fund is an innovative public-private partnership created to finance a dramatic turnaround in the fight against AIDS in Africa with an emphasis on women and children.
Apple Computer also announced a RED edition of their iPod Nano. Apple will donate $10 of every Nano Red purchase toward the (RED) campaign.
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