Upstart push-to-talk platform provider Kodiak Networks Inc. announced its first carrier customer last week by partnering with European-based operator Orange and is rumored to be readying a U.S.-based launch with Alltel Corp. as early as this week.
Kodiak’s agreement with Orange calls for the carrier to launch its Talk Now push-to-talk service using Kodiak’s RTX System on Orange’s GSM network in the United Kingdom and France during the second quarter of this year with additional deployments in eight other Orange markets by the end of the year.
While the Talk Now service is the first push-to-talk offering launched by a European carrier-Chicago-based Fastmobile does offer its fastchat push-to-talk software solution to individual wireless customers through a U.K. retailer-Orange is bullish on the uptake of the service estimating approximately 1 million users within the first year. The company added that it will target business users initially, but it also expects broad adoption from the consumer market.
“It addresses a real need amongst business to disseminate or communicate time-critical information quickly and efficiently,” said Orange Chief Executive Officer Sol Trujillo. “The service also provides consumers with an ideal way to keep in touch with friends and family by making it easy to instantly communicate with each other as a group at the touch of a button.”
Highlighting Orange’s business-first approach, the Talk Now service initially will be available on the carrier’s signature Treo 600 device, which includes the Palm operating system, and will use a soft key to activate the push-to-talk functionality. Kodiak CEO Craig Farrill said Orange plans to add up to a dozen Talk Now handsets during the next year.
Pricing for the service was not announced, though Orange said it will offer Talk Now as a premium service with “pricing bundles geared toward specific customer markets.”
Analysts have forecast mixed potential for push-to-talk services in Europe, where customers use less voice minutes than their U.S. counterparts, but send significantly more text messages. Some note European carriers are more interested in rolling out advanced multimedia messaging services that could end up competing against push-to-talk offerings, while others note that with most European operators offering similar handsets, network services and pricing structures, any form of differentiation could prove a strategic advantage.
Europe is also bracing for a standards-based PTT platform from a number of vendors, including L.M. Ericsson, Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG, using the Push to Talk over Cellular specification. Kodiak’s Farrill welcomed the competition, noting its service would provide superior performance compared with the packet-based POC offering, and that Kodiak’s platform could be marketed as a premium service by carriers that implement the POC-based service.
Beyond the Orange launch, industry sources claim Alltel is set to launch its Touch2Talk push-to-talk offering by the end of the month using Kyocera Corp.’s 3250 handset, with one source noting a Jan. 22 launch date. Alltel has a Touch2Talk link on its Web site, which includes customer trial information as well as trouble-shooting information.
Analysts note the Kodiak platform could provide a compelling application for Alltel, with Kodiak claiming similar presence capability to Winphoria’s packet-based service currently being used by Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS and superior latency performance compared with Nextel Communications Inc.’s iDEN-based Direct Connect service. The Kodiak offering also fits well into Alltel’s technology roadmap because Kodiak said its platform works on both analog and digital networks, unlike the Winphoria solution.
Kodiak would not comment on any specific U.S. carrier plans, noting only that it expects to announce a carrier partner in the near future. Alltel did not return calls for comment by RCR Wireless News press time, but said last year that it would launch a push-to-talk service around the beginning of this year.
Yankee Group analyst X.J. Wang commented that while the Kodiak platform should be competitive compared with other push-to-talk services, the company would have to launch the service in the U.S. market quickly to garner a portion of the market before other standards-based platforms become available.
Both Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS launched their push-to-talk offerings using Winphoria’s platform last year, which analysts have criticized for having slower call set-up and intra-call latency compared with Nextel’s “industry standard” Direct Connect service. Farrill added that Kodiak wanted to provide its solution to Verizon Wireless prior to its selection of Winphoria’s platform, but the carrier was “far down the road before we were born.”
Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. announced their support for the POC-based standard last year.
