The cellphone walkie-talkie is here

Mobile service companies are launching push to talk services in India

Amit Bose (left), Ashish Chaudhury

If you are annoyed by co-commuters chattering on their cellular phones while commuting to work, brace yourself for something that will be even more irritating "� your fellow commuter will soon be able to talk to more than one person over a mobile device.

Late last week, Tata Teleservices launched "push to talk" (PTT) services in south India, using Qualcomm's Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless, or BREW, technology and code division multiple access (CDMA) PTT handsets from Kyocera, the Japanese technology company. Hutchison Essar too launched PTT services in Gujarat.

PTT, the voice equivalent of instant messenger (IM), is instant two-way walkie-talkie communication, often with more than one person at a time. Much like IM, your PTT phone will have a list of buddies you can contact at the push of a button, without dialling their telephone numbers.

Says Amit Bose, president of Tata Teleservices: "Push-to-talk is a simple, user-friendly service that enables a customer to instantly communicate with several people simultaneously, at the push of a button. We foresee PTT becoming a key tool used by all communities across social strata to simplify their communication and lives."

Motorola and US cellphone service company Nextel Communications introduced PTT about a decade ago. But other companies such as Qualcomm of the US have launched alternative PTT technologies.

In India, apart from Tata Teleservices and Hutchison-Essar, Bharti Tele-Ventures and Reliance Infocomm too are eyeing a foray into PTT services.

Confirms Mohit Bhatnagar, head of value-added services at Bharti Televentures: "We are at the testing stage in different markets. We have had good user experience at the trial stage." Adds a Reliance Infocomm spokesman: "Yes, Reliance Infocomm is evaluating various offerings on this front."

How does PTT work? On PTT, voice travels on a Public Switched Telephone Network (which refers to the international telephone system based on copper wires carrying analog voice data, as opposed to the traditional circuit switched network used for regular mobile calls) in packets. The handsets required are similar to normal mobile phones but have a PTT button and a speaker.

To use PTT, a subscriber has to have PTT handset. Says Bose: "The prices will vary, depending on the handset's features. We will also be able to activate anyone who holds a BREW handset over the air on PTT. On activating PTT on the handset, the subscriber will be able to use his cellular phone as a mobile phone and as a walkie-talkie."

So subscribers will have a two-in-one device with a speaker. "At the push of a button, a PTT customer can get instantly connected to a group of PTT users," adds Bose.

Who are likely to subscribe to PTT services? Businessmen and company executives, says Ashish Chaudhury, country head, India and South Asia, Nokia Networks, Asia Pacific.

"Business users are likely to be the first to take advantage of the new service, but in the longer run it is forecast that the potential is larger. Families and small groups of friends can also be expected to adopt the service," adds he.

Nokia is gung ho about the service. "As PTT is a piece of software in phones, it can easily be included in several phone categories," Chaudhury points out.

During 2004, Nokia will be introducing a full range of PTT enabled GSM phones, including Symbian operating system-based smart phones. From 2005 onwards Nokia intends to make PTT available for virtually all new Nokia general packet radio switching (GPRS) and wideband CDMA phones.

LG Electronics too will launch PTT-enabled handsets a bit later, after mobile service providers test market the service, according to an LG India spokesman.

For mobile service providers, says an industry analyst, push-to-chat offers vast revenue-generating potential. In the US, Nextel has over 10 million PTT customers.

According to the Yankee Group, the telecom research firm, PTT accounted for four per cent of US mobile operators' revenues in 2002. All the major mobile service companies in India have conducted market surveys and concluded that PTT services offer considerable business potential.

Notes Nokia's Chaudhury: "India has a strong services sector and the application is particularly attractive to the services sector where people need to constantly communicate. Don't forget that SMS too had its sceptics when it was introduced."

For all the enthusiasm about PTT, the LG spokesman cautions that inter-operability is an issue at the moment "� that is, the service won't be available across networks. So you will be able to chat with others on the same network but not with people on other networks.

Agrees Bhatnagar: "Inter-operability between networks is an issue. Globally also, not many GSM specific handsets are being manufactured."

But mobile handset manufacturers like Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Siemens have been working on a PTT standard that would ensure their products worked with each other. That standard has yet to be approved by the Open Mobile Alliance standards body.

Says Chaudhury: "The majority of Nokia's standardisation effort for PTT goes to supporting the OMA standard, which is being finalised by the end of 2004.

All Nokia's PTT products will be compliant with the OMA specification, once it becomes available."

The second problem is that PTT offers an initial fast service but is said to be slow after that. If, for instance, you talk and press the button waiting for the person at the other end to reply, and the other person replies but you haven't stopped pressing the button, you won't be able to hear the other person and vice versa.

Last but not least, how many mobile service subscribers will want to buy a new mobile phone to subscribe to PTT services?

Mobile service companies will, no doubt, offer trade-ins (Tata Teleservices has said that it will do just this and is offering PTT-enabled phones for Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000), but much will also depend on the tariffs (these were yet to be announced last week).

Nokia

So rest easy "� you'll have some temporary reprieve before your co-commuters start chattering away on two-way wireless phones.