Looking to continue push-to-talk communication capabilities between customers across the Western Hemisphere, NII Holdings and Motorola announced a smartphone application that will allow users in the United States with to connect PTT conversations with NII customers across Latin America.
The PRIP application, which is based on Motorola’s PTT platform, runs $8 per month for unlimited usage and is currently available across Google’s Play application store for use on devices running the Android operating system. NII noted that an iOS version of the application compatible with Apple devices will be available in the coming weeks.
The application was deemed necessary following Sprint Nextel’s recent shuttering of its iDEN network across the United States. That network used the same technology as what NII uses for its Latin American operations and included the ability for customers to conduct PTT calls across regions. NII was previously a division of Nextel Communications, which was acquired by Sprint in 2004.
NII has an extensive history with Motorola’s proprietary iDEN technology and plans to continue supporting the service as it also rolls out 3G services based on the W-CDMA standard.
Sprint Nextel has been transitioning its PTT customers to its CDMA-based service over the past several years, though more than 1.3 million customers remained on the iDEN offering at the end of the first quarter. Sprint Nextel is looking to re-farm the 800 MHz spectrum used to support the iDEN network to bolster coverage of its CDMA and LTE offerings.
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