BROWSING: push to talk

Following up on its July announcement, AT&T Mobility this morning said it would bring Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry 8820 to market at $300 with a two-year contract. The carrier said that the Wi-Fi-enabled device could roam on 10,000 hotspots in the United States-for...

Verizon Wireless expanded its unlimited messaging offer to a new series of push-to-talk plans. The America's Choice Push to Talk Select plans have the same number of minutes as the carrier's Push to Talk Basic plans-ranging from 700 to 6,000 minutes for a family...

The battle of the titans continued last week as the industry's No. 1 and No. 2 carriers rolled out dueling promotional efforts centered on popular handsets. AT&T Inc.'s Cingular division, the No. 1 operator, cut the price of the LG Electronics Co. Ltd. CU400,...

Verizon Wireless and Cingular continued their retail battle this week with dueling promotional efforts centered on popular handsets. AT&T Inc.'s Cingular division is offering LG Electronics Co. Ltd.'s CU400, a W-CDMA phone, for free with a two-year contract, while Verizon Wireless is hoping to...

As the hype machine clicks into high gear for the CTIA Wireless 2007 show, I thought it might be nice to review some of the hype from years past. The goal, of course, is to show that this year's hottest thing might not...

In an ongoing advertising battle between Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and Sprint Nextel Corp., Cingular seems to have won the latest round-but did not emerge completely unscathed. Sprint Nextel had challenged a slew of Cingular's advertising claims about the largest carrier's network and push-to-talk service,...

LAS VEGAS-Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. added to its broad portfolio of devices for both consumer and enterprise markets with the introduction of a bevy of handsets that will bring its handset offerings to nearly three dozen.The South Korean handset maker recently has produced so...

ESPOO, Finland—Nokia Corp. and Telenor R&D announced that after teaming up to develop converged services, they are now able to deliver Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem-based services over Nokia’s broadband platform, along with Voice over Internet calls between mobile and fixed Session Initiation Protocol clients....

SURREY, United Kingdom-Argo Interactive Group plc announced it acquired rival ACTeSys GmbH for $4 million in cash. The combined company will operate under the Argogroup name, and expects to offer a suite of end-to-end testing and monitoring solutions to wireless carriers. Privately held Argogroup...

ESPOO, Finland-Nokia Corp. announced it won a contract to provide its Push to Talk over Cellular platform to Fujian Mobile Communications, a subsidiary of China Mobile Ltd."The Nokia PoC service attracts new subscribers, and can help operators increase their average revenue per user," said...

SINGAPORE-The GSM Association announced its successful completion of six months of network interoperability trials in Europe and Asia with Session Initiation Protocol and Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem technology.Many operators and vendors participated in the trials as basic IMS and SIP compatibility are key success...

LONDON-More than 30 GSM/GPRS networks now offer commercial push-to-talk service, according to new research from the Global mobile Suppliers Association. Fifteen of the networks are in Europe, 11 are Asian, five are in the Americas and two are Middle Eastern.Several more operators are in...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden-Vodafone Sweden said it plans to launch commercial push-to-talk service in September targeted at both corporate customers and consumers.The carrier has been in joint evaluations of the service with Nokia for about a year, according to Vodafone Sweden, which bought Nokia's Push to...

U.S. Cellular Corp. joined the push-to-talk fray with the launch of SpeedTalk, which operates on the carrier's CDMA2000 1x data network available across its 25-state coverage area. The service will compete with similar offerings from a number of operators, including Nextel Communications Inc., Verizon...

CHICAGO-Lucent Technologies Inc. announced enhancements to its Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem equipment. The vendor introduced new "blended lifestyle" services that combine voice, video and data capabilities that can be delivered on both wireless and wireline networks.Lucent's Active PhoneBook is a unified phonebook supporting an...

SAN MATEO, Calif.-Sonim Technologies Inc. said it has successfully completed an Open Mobile Alliance-compliant Push to Talk over Cellular call over a UMTS network using its Sonim Xperience PoC Client. Sonim had previously demonstrated its PoC solution in conjunction with Nortel Networks Ltd. at...

TURKEYTurkish carrier AVEA Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S. selected Nokia to supply a commercial Push to Talk over Cellular solution. The deal also includes Nokia's Presence solution. The vendor will provide installation, commissioning and project management services, in addition to consulting work to integrate PoC to...

STOCKHOLM-L.M. Ericsson and Siemens AG said they have completed interoperability tests between Siemens push-to-talk handsets and Ericsson's Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystems-based infrastructure."One of the core strengths with an IMS solution for standards-based push to talk is its ability to enable compatibility between a range...

Phone makers released a variety of high-tech wares in conjunction with the CeBIT show. Among those making announcements were:Motorola Inc., which showed off a range of new handsets. The company unveiled its new 3G V1150, a third-generation phone with a 2-megapixel camera, music player...

BOSTON-Carriers looking to deploy push-to-talk service outside the United States should proceed with caution, according to a new report from the Yankee Group.Despite successes in the United States, PTT faces several hurdles in markets outside the United States, said the firm. Those issues include...

ISTANBUL, Turkey-Following a similar announcement from its rival Tuesday, Motorola Inc. Wednesday announced a contract to deliver Push to Talk over Cellular equipment to Turkcell, Turkey's leading GSM operator. Motorola said Turkcell's PoC service is available to subscribers using its V400p handsets. "We predict...

ESPOO, Finland-Turkcell, a GSM operator in Turkey, has begun offering its business customers commercial push-to-talk service using Nokia's Push to Talk over Cellular equipment. Nokia said the deployment follows successful trials of the technology over recent months.Nokia added that it has more than 30...

Sprint Corp. and Nextel Communications Inc. tied the knot last week in what the two telecom providers call a $35 billion "merger of equals." The newly formed Sprint Nextel operation will serve more than 35 million customers, including Sprint PCS' 2.8 million resale customers,...

NEW YORK-Nextel Communications Inc. was able to support marketing claims for its Nationwide Direct Connect service, but modified pricing claims following a ruling by the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus Inc. NAD said the case was brought to the...