Push To Talk: Walkie-Talkie Phone Service

Nextel, Sprint PCS, and Verizon Wireless let you chat instantly with friends and colleagues miles away.

Grace Aquino, PC World

Got a question or comment? Write to Grace Aquino.

When a phone call isn't quick enough, there's Push to Talk (PTT), telecommunications industry-speak for services that let you talk to someone walkie-talkie style, at the push of a button. PTT is meant to be quicker and more efficient than regular phone calls, and it lets you converse one-on-one or among a group of users simultaneously--typically five or more, depending on the carrier.

Nextel, Sprint PCS, and Verizon Wireless currently offer services that let customers with PTT-enabled phones talk with anyone who's on the same carrier, almost anywhere in the country. But these services do not work between carriers. For example, a Sprint PCS user can't push-to-talk with someone on the Nextel or Verizon network, and vice versa.

How It Works

The basic service works the same on all three carriers. To make a PTT call, you press a special button, which is usually located on the side of the phone near the volume control. Then you either enter a number or select a name from your contacts list. If you want to talk to a group, you'd create a list of group members (either on the phone or, in Verizon's case, on the Web) and then select the group's name to initiate a PTT session.

Sprint and Verizon use the same phone number for PTT as it does for regular voice calls. Nextel, however, assigns a separate number (consisting of Area ID, Network ID, and Member ID) for PTT calls, which can be inconvenient if you have to enter two numbers in your address book.

When the PTT call goes through, the phone indicates that the floor is open. To start talking and to transmit your message, you hold down the button much like you would on a walkie-talkie. Releasing the button gives the other person the floor to speak.

During a PTT call, incoming voice calls go directly to voice mail. Conversely, if you're on a voice call and someone tries to contact you through PTT, you'd show up as unavailable.

I tried PTT on Sprint's service, which was easy to set up and use. I talked to my coworker several times without problems, but performance could be improved: There was a 2- to 3-second lag time before I heard my coworker's responses. In some instances, sentences wouldn't transmit in their entirety. Make sure you hold the PTT button down while you speak so the microphone can capture your entire message.

Having to repeat yourself all the time can get frustrating. Why not just make a regular call? Repeating what you say can also be pricey if your PTT time counts against the minutes of your calling plan.

I checked Nextel, Sprint, and Verizon's Web sites for prices on PTT service plans. As you might expect, each company has its own pricing structure and PTT-call allocation. The information on Nextel's site was, by far, the most comprehensive, covering pricing and detailed FAQs. Verizon's site listed some good details, but didn't delve into monthly fees. Sprint's site provided very little information and pricing info was deeply buried; the only way I found the company's fees was to price out a plan in my area.

Plan Details

Sprint. If you want to use PTT without eating up minutes on your voice plan, try Sprint's Ready Link PTT service. It costs $15 a month on top of the monthly calling plan, which can range from $35 (for 300 minutes) to $115 (for 2500 minutes). So the least-expensive combination voice and PTT plan would cost $50, giving you unlimited push-to-talk calls to other Sprint PTT subscribers. A caveat: You can't use Ready Link in an area where you have only a roaming signal; you have to be on the Sprint network.

If you subscribe to the company's $15-a-month PCS Vision data service plan, you can get Ready Link for $5 a month. Alternatively, if you choose a plan that costs $100 or more per month and don't want the Vision data service, you get Ready Link for free.

Currently Sprint offers three Ready Link-enabled Sanyo phones: the SCP-5500, a clamshell-style camera phone; the ruggedized RL2000; and the clamshell-design RL2500. Prices for these phones range from $250 to $379, though a phone can cost as low as $99 for the RL2000 if you sign up for a two-year contract and apply for rebates.

Verizon. Unlike Sprint, Verizon offers combo voice and PTT packages, called America's Choice with Push to Talk. Prices range from $60 (400 voice minutes) to $220 (3500 voice minutes) and cover unlimited PTT on one-to-one calls only; a PTT group call is an additional 15 cents per minute per participant. The Motorola V60p is currently Verizon's only PTT-capable phone.

Nextel. Of the three companies, Nextel has the oldest technology, called DirectConnect, and the most complicated matrix of PTT plans. The company designates PTT calls both locally (which it calls In Market) and nationally (Market to Market). When you subscribe to Nextel's voice plan, which range from $40 to $200 (the allotment of minutes varies widely), In-Market PTT calls are free. Market-to-Market calls cost 10 cents per minute for each participant, which means you're charged for both inbound and outbound transmissions. Nextel provides a list of scenarios and explains who's charged for what at its Web site.

To further complicate matters, Nextel has a plethora of voice plans with minutes ranging from zero to unlimited. What's more, with an a la carte PTT service, Nextel deducts minutes from your calling plan.

If you prefer to keep the minutes in your voice-plan bucket, you'd want to sign up for the company's unlimited PTT plan for $10 a month. Nextel also offers unlimited PTT with two-way text messaging for $15. This service covers coast-to-coast contacts; and when you can't take a call, you can send and receive text and numeric messages instead. DirectConnect is available on nearly all Nextel phones.

Final Call

Overall, Push to Talk is useful technology for businesses that can benefit from easy, instant access to always-on-the-road workers like contractors, salespeople, and service personnel. With nationwide PTT, carriers are hoping that more consumers will adopt the technology.

If carriers and phone manufacturers can get rid of the lag-time issue on PTT calls, the experience will be more satisfying as it more accurately becomes, as Sprint spokesperson Jenny Stevens puts it, "voice IM." To that, I say, "ten-four."