Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens tie up for push to talk over GPRS

Our Corporate Bureau
18 February 2003

Mumbai: Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens are jointly defining specifications for an open standard to speed the adoption of direct-call push to talk service over GPRS.

Push to talk is a cost-efficient, simple-to-use direct voice service for GPRS-based systems that has attracted the interest of leading operators. The technology uses the capabilities of the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) as specified by 3GPP for enabling IP connections between mobile phones. Initial trials are expected to begin in the second half of 2003.

The specifications created through this collaboration will be submitted to relevant industry bodies in order to create a standard that will avoid fragmentation and establish a unified push to talk over GPRS market with the same economies of scale that made GSM a global success. The interoperable technology resulting from this work will allow mobile phones and networks to be used for push to talk communication using a variety of radio access networks.

Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens are also inviting mobile network operators and other manufacturers to join them in creating an open, multi-vendor market for push to talk in the GSM evolution path (GSM / GPRS / EDGE / WCDMA) by developing products and services based on the open standard they are defining.

“AT&T Wireless supports this joint initiative. Our goal is to connect our customers to the people and information they care most about,” says Rod Nelson, CTO, AT&T Wireless. “This new service, which will open to a broad audience, is another way to connect and is an example of how the scale and flexibility of GSM / GPRS / EDGE leads to new and cost-effective services.”

Cingular Wireless is in support of this cooperation and is evaluating push to talk technology for its customers. “We are always looking for new service offerings like push to talk that allow our customers to quickly and simply connect to others,” says Mike Dobbs, vice-president of product management at Cingular. “The standards-based approach taken by these manufacturers will allow carriers to ultimately deliver this service to the largest market in the most efficient and effective way.”