By Jo Best, 30 March 2004 16:30
NEWS Despite recent reports that SMS is in rude health - more than 20 billion texts were sent last year in the UK alone - there may be a shadow on the horizon in the form of push-to-talk.
Push-to-talk - the 'walkie-talkie' technology being touted as mobile's next big thing - is a function that allows users to send voice messages and, according to Ericsson, has proved very popular with young and, surprisingly, old alike.
In the US, PTT has largely been adopted for business use. Research by handset maker Ericsson into potential usage in Europe indicates that mobile owners will be taking up the service to chat to friends. And while youngsters are keen on the blend of IM-style presence functionality and SMS-like voice messaging, the older generation that the text revolution has passed by are keen to get on the bandwagon too.
Niclas Medman, senior marketing manager for Ericsson's PPT program, said that there had been interest from mothers who didn't use SMS in using the messaging functionality and said that PPT: "Fills a gap where voice calls are not normally made". It's a rich seam to be tapped - Orange says that 80 per cent of over 40s have never sent a text message.
However, while grandparents might take to the service like silver-haired ducks to water, Mark Boulding, senior associate analyst at Quocirca, said that the SMS-PTT relationship is likely to be harmonious.
"There's a time and a place for SMS... PTT isn't as flexible as SMS. SMS is a surprisingly secure medium; you can charge for content in interesting ways and you have micropayments and m-commerce. PTT doesn't offer that. It won't replace SMS; it will augment it," he said.
The instant nature of PTT will no doubt appeal to teenagers but the issue of pricing will put it on the back foot. While an SMS typically costs 10p, pricing structures in the US - where PTT is more common - are around the $20-a-month level. Ericsson's research shows that European consumers were only willing to pay a 5 to 10 monthly flat fee.
Comments
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1. fnord
So,is this PTT really analagous with walky-talkies? Can you multicast to a bunch of people subscribed to a persistent virtual channel? What is the latency? What about virtual channel access contention...over!
What sort of premium price are we expected to pay for this novel service?
Is the cost as ludicrous as that of GPRS?
Think about GPRS for a minute. Which is less resource intensive for the network operator, a data over GSM connection at 9600b/s, for about 15 to 20 minutes to download 1 MByte of data for a off-peak cost of 30p (assuming no inclusive minutes), or the same 1 Mbyte download delivered six times faster over GPRS, costing 16.7 times the price, at £5.
Think about it, people, they are gonna rip us off again with PTT. Don't be fooled.
2. anonymous
Not sure about the latency issue: GSM PTT services will not, I imagine, be aimed at the emergency services.
The likely flat-rate monthly charge model for PTT services will mean that subscribers won't have to worry about individual call costs.
3. Gandalf T White
sounds like it's a great way for parents to limit the amount they have to spend on their childs phone - just get the phone set-up and all you pay is a set fee per month. No more "i couldn't phone! i didn't have any credit left" although i think batteries will be running low alot more...
4. anonymous
Radio Amateurs have been running Push to talk VoIP gateways for around 4 years now.
Take a look at: www.g1lvn.org.uk
for an example.
Home made gateways (like cell base stations) are run by amateurs in their spare time. They typically connect over the internet to conference call type servers such as eQSO, Echolink and IRLP. see www.eqso.co.uk
Latency and Jitter doesn't seem to be much of a problem even over the public internet, as long as the voice call is kept short. If however you ramble on for over a minute or two without passing it over for others to talk then the variable delays can add up to quite a sizeable amount which can cause some confusion.
Apart from that the system works well and has been adopted by many Radio Hams world wide as it is very similer in operation to an old fashioned radio net.
5. Rob
VoIP for radio amateurs has been around for only about a year to year and a half (so not sure where you picked out 4 years from) - the gateway(s) you refer to are commercially available from the likes of Yaesu. The PTT feature as described on mobile phones is very widely used in the US already and has been for some time - typical data rates for a good quality IP based conversation should be about 8k/sec + overheads - so work on approx 12-15k/sec for good quality audio - GPRS can already support this (as in the US) - PTT is not new and has already been on a few phones Ericsson made one years ago which worked on the GSM Pro stuff. In Sweeden & Norway they use 400mhz for some local mobile networks (they have PTT voice) and dont know if you remember a company called Dolphin? Well they do the same PTT over 400mhz(ish) packet radio. PTT is not new all - just dont let the operators fool you into thinking it is and paying a fortune for it. Look at the Plasma TV scams - Plasma displays have been around for years - nothing new there - just some revamped technology so fools with ££££/$$$$ can go spend their money!!!
6. Gaz
I have had a Notice of Variation for 3 years now allowing me to run a VoIP gateway on the Amateur Radio Bands. I'm by no means a pioneer. Amateurs in the UK were doing it for at least 1 year befor me hence the 4 year claim.
Incidentally US amateurs have been using phone patches for well over 20 (maybe 30 years) there is not much difference.