T-Mobile Next for Push-to-Talk
October 1, 2004 - source: BWCS
T-Mobile is to become the latest European mobile operator to launch Push-to-Talk services. The Deutsche Telekom-owned wireless giant said this morning that it will launch the new "walkie-talkie" style services in Germany by the end of this year. The first handset available to offer the service will be the Nokia 5140, said the company.
Last month, France Telecom's mobile wing Orange launched Push-to-Talk services in the UK. The operator plans to charge a premium for push-to-talk calls due to its added functionality. Following the British launch, Orange said it plans to roll out the service to France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium.
The walkie-talkie type service allows users to talk directly to one or many friends or colleagues directly having first pushed a button on their mobile handset. Push-to-Talk first rose to prominence in the US after Nextel introduced it in 2003. The American operator now says that a large proportion of its 13.9 million customers use the service. Since then, the Push-to-Talk service has also been launched in Singapore by M1, in July of this year. Orange backed operator Essar is also offering the service in India in competition with Tata Indicom. Mobilecom, the German mobile service provider has also announced plans to launch the service in the near future.
In the UK, where the service is already available, Orange recently pulled back from its earlier customer projections. It had initially set a target of one million push-to-talk customers by the end of the first year of service. However, recently it has refused to comment on how many users it expects to win in the future. One of the problems for would-be users will be finding compatible handsets. At launch Orange claimed that a "range of suitable devices" will be available over the "next few months". However, at the moment, it appears that the only one available is the PalmOne Treo 600 device. Trials are said to be taking place on other handsets from Nokia, Alcatel, LG Electronics Inc and Sagem.
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