Push To Talk (PTT) - Mobile Phones

[Scotty]

Anyone know what happened to PTT on phone networks?

I spent a bit of time in the US back in the late 90's and early 00's. At the time PTT was used by almost every business I had contact with. It was an inexpensive was to reach a large number of users at once over a large area using the existing phone network and meant users didn't need to spend extra on a paying for access to a dedicated radio network.

I recall PTT being available through Telstra on some handsets in the early 00's, however by around 2005 it appeared to have completely died out.

Considering all the rave in radio comms is now for 'secure' networks, does anybody know why PTT never really took off in Oz? IMO, so many of the users that now use the TBRO/NXDN/TETRA/etc networks would have been far better served using PTT, as it would allow for secure wide area comms, significantly cheaper access rates, smaller/portable units and the benefit of also having a mobile phone.

[rustynswrail]

What the hell happened to PTT on phone networks?

I spent a bit of time in the US back in the late 90's and early 00's. At the time PTT was used by almost every business I had contact with. It was an inexpensive was to reach a large number of users at once over a large area using the existing phone network and meant users didn't need to spend extra on a paying for access to a dedicated radio network.

I recall PTT being available through Telstra on some handsets in the early 00's, however by around 2005 it appeared to have completely died out.

Considering all the rave in radio comms is now for 'secure' networks, does anybody know why PTT never really took off in Oz? IMO, so many of the users that now use the TBRO/NXDN/TETRA/etc networks would have been far better served using PTT, as it would allow for secure wide area comms, significantly cheaper access rates, smaller/portable units and the benefit of also having a mobile phone.

The main reason was high cost and low demand.

R

[ivahri]

I did play with it- awful latency... it was so "hit miss" that I used it a few times & gave the idea away.

Cheers

Richard

[Longreach]

HI all,
Seems to be a few apps available on iphones and the like like Zello and Heytell that kinda mimic it, using your data. Zello seems to be able do the group thing too and be able to be hooked to a roip.
cheers
Matt

[Scotty]

I did play with it- awful latency... it was so "hit miss" that I used it a few times & gave the idea away.

Yeah, latency in Oz was terrible. It certainly wasn't like that in the US.

It's a shame it wasn't properly implemented over here like it was in the US. It still appears to have a customer base in the US and is still popular in Canada.

[Chrisco]

I bit off topic does anyone use SMS to land line numbers either from your mobile or home phone? Is there a phone a part from a telstra branded one Uniden/Panasonic that can send SMS. Just to try it I sent a sms to a non sms capable Telstra landline phone, the phone rings as normal and the text is read out by a computer. I could only sent back common pretyped messages YES, NO, okay I will call back, etc by selecting opt 1,2,3 etc

[criten]

Try this app instead http://zello.com/

[Longreach]

Is that the same zello I mentioned 3 posts back?

[soupbones]

Lots of PTT Android apps out there. There is even a CB radio app, which acts like CB radio, and you can hook into different areas all over the world. Bit like IRLP on ham radio but it has the usual CB radio dick brains as well.

[Longreach]

Hi all,
Whats the app called Soup?
cheers
Matt