The Hindu Business Line : When push comes to talk

You want to connect with a group using your mobile phone. So go ahead, just push a button. Here's how new technology makes your mobile phone double up as a walkie-talkie.

THE Best-in-Show award at the recent 3GSM 2004 summit at Cannes in France was jointly won by Sonim Technologies and Fastmobile representing the `Push to Talk over Cellular' area.

Push to Talk (PTT) was, in fact, among the `most talked about' technologies or applications at the summit.

Basically a PTT service will allow the mobile handset to be used like a walkie-talkie. In addition, this facility will not require any dialling by the user. The mere pushing of a button on the phone will allow one to connect to another person or to a group of persons.

To serve groups of users who need to interact for some purpose or to get together groups of users by creating a purpose for them for doing so appears to be one of the preoccupations of the mobile telephone industry.

"Worldwide, the industry must find all kinds of manner of expanding usage to improve revenues from users," says a Mumbai-based marketing head of a mobile services company. "Data or entertainment services will definitely improve usage. But there can be other kinds of services too since data and entertainment services could be a little limited on the mobile handset. So group networking services are what we are trying to do," he says.

What is notable, he says, is that Indian wireless operators are implementing new, just-emerged world technologies with increasing speed. Almost all the major GSM operators have or are implementing EDGE, a technology that allows more efficient use of spectrum, a scarce resource. Indian CDMA operators like Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices have perhaps the latest technology available in the world and have huge ambitious plans.

Tata Teleservices recently tied up with CDMA technology provider Qualcomm for its BREWChat solution to offer PTT services in India. TTSL plans to launch this service around the middle of this year. If it does, then it claims it will be the first CDMA operator outside of the US to launch PTT services. The MoU is for a framework that will allow TTSL to roll out BREWChat-based services for up to 7 million users. (Reliance Infocomm too, much earlier, tied up for BREWChat solutions, although PTT was not immediately talked about at the time of the announcement).

With this solution, customers can download games, ring tones, e-mail and business-focussed applications, as well as location-based services, says a statement from TTSL. Reliance, meanwhile, has announced the multiplayer interactive gaming on its CDMA networks.

The BREWChat solution for a PTT application enables person-to-person and person-to-group communication between subscribers at the push of a button. It also has the technology for group management of subscriber and instant creation of chat groups.

These kind of applications could find wide acceptance not only among groups of say, teenage kids, but in important areas such as hospital services, rescue operations at disaster sites, search operations, policing and in other non-life-and-death situations such as conferences and meetings.

Many a wireless technology major, such as Siemens or Motorola, had showcased PTT facilities.

Motorola, which has won wireless infrastructure contracts in both the GSM and CDMA segments, is also ready to provide PTT in Indian markets. "Going forward, besides offering next generation technologies to Indian operators, Motorola will also focus on providing value-added services such as managed network services and PTT over cellular," says Simon Leung, General Manager, Global Telecom Solutions Sector and Vice-President, Motorola Inc, speaking of his company's contracts in India.

kripram@thehindu.co.in

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