Sprint & Verizon : Push To Talk

Get with the program DaveyJ....this happened over a year ago!!! To clarify, he is specifically talking about a patent for Direct Connect over CDMA, not PTT in general. Here's some reading material for you:

January 2002 Motorola Press Release

January 2002 Qualcomm Q-Chat Press Release

January 2002 3GNewsroom Press Release

 

I need a new phone. I want a new phone. My jones to buy a new phone probably won't last long enough for PTT availability, unless some knows otherwise. Is there any news on the PTT front? Does anyone know anything about the new Moto v60x? Release date? Specs? Will it be PTT compatible?

 

Verizon Wireless 'Push to Talk' will be here about August 1st- was in a meeting this morning. There will be two Motorola phones available at first- a v60p and a C333. Both will have stout antennas and built-in speaker phones. There will be 150 available contacts for your 'Push to Talk' list and 50 groups. The sound quality should be much better as it will be built on Verizon's CDMA technology and not Nextel's 'half band TDMA' technology. And it will be nation-wide at roll out- as long as you're in a 1x Verizon zone.

 

I just talked to a Verizon Rep and they said PTT was coming out next month. I asked about the rate plans and he said that the rate plans would be the same, you just tack on $20 a month for PTT.

I have a question for Enigmatic though. Is the technology for Verizon's PTT better than Nextel's? I mean will it be as clear and instant (no lapse)?

Thanks for any info.

 

Sorry the above question was for Oregon Wireless, not Enigmatic.... oops.

 

From what I understand it will be a real small Lag, somethkng like 2 or 3 seconds in Ideal conditions is what I read. But who knows, maybe Verizon has it worked out to almost no lag at all.

 

Actually here is what I know. I personally sell Verizon and Nextel together. As of today, Verizon was dropped because of the upcoming Push to talk launching. Nextel pused them out for reasons of being scared of Verizons competition. Verizon already has them up and working with a few demo companies and are going to be awesome. My account mgr for Verizon has let me in on a little info about them. They are not going to run on the CDMA but there Express network. So it will be more like and IP connection.(Like a chat room) So there will be a screen displaying the user's and if there phones are online or not. Also just one phone number unlike Nextel's piece of sh** service which recquires two numbers. And last but not least Verizon is going to launch National, just laughing at Nextel and how it took them 14 years and they are still not even on phase 3 of National Direct Connect. Anyways, I would guess by September it should be out. The Push to Talk coverage is going to aproximately the size of their true digital coverage across the U.S. So not huge but a great start. Thats what I know

 

I keep hearing stuff about connect times. All I know is that Nextel connect is not that quick more than half the time im holding the ptt button for 2-4 seconds to connect if it even connects. If I try calling a friend or co-worker I most often get the "Please Wait while we locate the Nextel Subscriber" come on whats that junk. The coverage is the spottiest of all the companies I have used (Sprint, Cingular, Pacific Bell, US West, Airtouch, At&t, Verizon). PTT has to better with any of the newer competitors.

 

OK it's been a while. I haven't heard any more rumors and speculations are you all burnt out on this topic or just enjoying your new camera phones...Inquiring minds want to hear the latest BS.

 

You guys should check out the Motorola Forums, but if u dont want to go over there, ill give you the heads up. For starters, certain people calling Customer service many times talking to different people are now starting to ger respones other then "end of the year" now the rumored date is ANYWHERE BETWEEN AUGUST 1ST AND THE 15TH.

Another one is that the V60p phones are now in Radio Shack warehouses and someone even reported they are in the Verizon wireless stores themselves. Apperently the phones are ready for use and the Network and Legal issues with Nextel is the Hold up.

Plans have been reported to be 10 Dollors for 300 PTT Minutes to 20 dollors fo unlimited PTT Usage.

Reported Holdups have been said to be Legal hold ups with Nextel over Trademark rights on terms like "PTT" "PUSH TO TALK" stuff like that. And another hold up said was to be handoffs between 800 MHZ and 1900 MHZ servers.

First reported Problem of the V60p is the Battery drain is said to be as much as a high tech color camera Phone, meaning it has to be charged evrey night(BIG DEAL!) Apperently the phone has to ping the 1X RTT Signal every 1 second instead of the usual 5 second, hence the latency issue being no more then 1 Second Max. But resulting in increased Battery drain.

One more thing is that the phone to follow the V60p for PTT is the Samsung SCH-A690 Seen here:http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?id=334 Which will be color. Think about the Battery life on that bad boy!

Anyways thats all i have on this, and notice ive used "its been said" "Reported" "Apperenlty" Notice none of this is FACT said by Verizon themselves, just people "on the inside" dont come kill me if this stuff is not entirely true. Just information from others.

 

I spoke to a rep at a Vz store 07/18 and was told the PTT was set to launch Aug 14th. I then spoke to another rep on 07/24 who said they had all just gone to some training on the rollout of the PTT V60P, but that they couldn't give a launch date because it was still not set. After I told her I had heard 08/14, she confirmed that that was the last word.

I just called the store today (08/05) and the rep said the launch date has just been delayed again until "late September".

I don't know how much longer I can hold out with my outdated, on the blitz phone... I really need to PTT feature, but don't want to resort to Nextel with such crappy reception...

 

The following article indicates a Monday release.

Click here to read the article!

 

In response to Airb330

Alot of the peeps you know don't have Nextel cause they recquire that you have very good credit to use their services, you are obviously a pre-pay customer . Everyone I know pretty much wants Nextel and is going that way as soon as the number porting between different carriers is allowed and their contract run out.

The was I see it is that Verizon and Sprint have been talking about PTT for years...2 years ago when I was selling Sprint PCS my rep would always say that they were 6 months away from the technology, and that they will have the same small phones with PTT.
Now here I am 2 years later and Sprint has the same cruddy network where I would roam in the city and no PTT.

I have not heard all that much out of Verizon about PTT, aside from them having trainings in place to teach reps, but that really doesn't mean much...Sprint had the training in place about 18 months ago.

 

slymatty

Glad to have you here on Wireless Advisor.....

Verizon is launching Push to talk on Monday, August 18, 2003.

 

talked to a sprint pcs store manager yesterday, sprint's version of DC will be out by end of october 2003. the network is up and running and he showed me the phone and how it worked. the first phone will be a Sanyo (7200 i believe), which is the replacement to the 4900, and a Sanyo flip version out a few weeks later.(replacement to the camera flip, minus the camera). he said there will be no upgrades available to the 4900. my advise is bargen with him, i have gotten $150 credits to upgrade every phone i have ever had.

henry

 

You will need the newest Adobe Acrobat software to look at it, but it's pretty cool, photos of testing and inside parts and such.

Click

 

There won't be any *upgrades* on the 4900. It will be re-released as a PTT handset. Prob sometime late Nov, early Dec.

 

So what do you all think of the number porting? I'm glad it finally rolled out!

I hear the Sprint PTT is pretty much like the Verizon verion.....slow. I think they have a ways to go yet before they can really bite into Nextel's Direct Connect. So far I'm not impressed.

Have you seen the Smartphone Nextel is planning on launching in 2004. The i930, it has some sweet features but I don't think it is Bluetooth compat.....it will be intresting to see how it does on the market.