VZW quietly rolls out Rev. A PTT service

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August 4 2008 - 12:47 pm EDT | Allie Winter | RCR Wireless News

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Verizon Wireless has re-placed itself in the push-to-talk arena. As promised earlier this year, Verizon Wireless has released two new PTT phones, running on the carrier’s CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Revision A network. The new devices are the Motorola Inc. Adventure V750 and the Casio G’zOne Boulder, both of which sport rugged construction, hinting at the target audience.

Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Brenda Raney said the new phones run on the Motorola/Winphoria platform, the same Verizon Wireless has used for previous push-to-talk phones, just now on its faster network. Early reports had suggested that the service would run on Qualcomm Inc.’s BREWchat platform, which took some cues from Qualcomm’s Qchat service, which is exclusive to Sprint Nextel Corp.

Raney said the new phones are compatible with the older devices, but because the older phones do not support Rev. A, when linked both devices will experience the slower non-Rev. A speed. Raney said the new devices will work in 1x markets, but they’ll run at the slower speed.

“They’re all compatible,” Raney said. “The biggest difference is speed.”

Speed is key

Speed had been an issue with previous PTT offerings. Initially, the service’s packet-based offerings running on CDMA networks were dinged for falling well short of the sub-one second set-up and intracall latency provided by Sprint Nextel Corp.’s iDEN service. AT&T Mobility and Alltel Communications L.L.C. managed to undercut those differences using a circuit-switched-based offering from Kodiak Networks, but that also failed to match the outright speed of the iDEN service.

Sprint Nextel upped the ante earlier this year with the launch of its Qchat-based PTT service running on its Rev. A network; in addition to matching the set-up and intracall latency of the iDEN network, Qchat devices are also interoperable with iDEN devices.

Verizon Communications Inc. President and COO Denny Strigl defended the quality of the carrier’s new offering during its second-quarter conference call.

“I think we’re in very good shape on latency, unlike what you saw from us a couple of years ago; we’re in a good place,” Strigl said.

Another offering

Strigl said unlimited push-to-talk will cost $10 per month on any line that has a nationwide voice plan, which is similar to what the carrier charged for its 1x-based PTT offering.

Strigl also commented on the future of PTT within Verizon Wireless.

“I see push-to-talk as just another part of our very broad product line,” Strigl said. “So this is one product; we think we have some upside. But again, it is just one product.”

Target market

A tricky factor for the other carriers is getting enough customers to sign on to their PTT service so that they’ll have someone to directly connect to. Raney said this is why they’re targeting business customers primarily for PTT.

“PTT Verizon customers have to talk to other Verizon PTT customers,” Raney said. “But businesses buy in volume and it’s a much greater benefit for a business user, who typically does that anyway.”