Motorola Inc. has unveiled what it describes as the first cross-technology Push-to-Talk over Cellular solution rooted in wireless networks. This announcement comes against the background of an industry search for a common standard for PoC even as the major players and the Open Mobile Alliance have not reached a consensus on the protocol.
Motorola’s solution will cover all major technologies, including GPRS, CDMA2000 1x and Wi-Fi networks.
“Before this product, it was not possible to do PoC across networks,” remarked Paul Sergeant, director of product marketing at Motorola’s softswitch division.
With this solution, customers of CDMA carriers like Sprint Corp. or Verizon Wireless can place or receive calls with customers of GPRS carriers like AT&T Wireless Services Inc. or Cingular Wireless L.L.C.
“We built upon existing open standards and then utilized our softswitching expertise and IP networking elements to develop this innovative cross-technology PoC solution,” said Murali Aravamudan, vice president and general manager, Winphoria division of Motorola’s global telecomm solutions sector.
Sergeant said the technology is based on the Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem, explaining further that it can transcend national boundaries.
“It means global PTT,” he said, “and if you have a buddy list in Germany, you can have a global PTT session based on IP between the two operators.” This also applies to Wi-Fi networks, he added.
He explained, however, the IMS capability is an option to the core technology. “It can be a standalone or over IMS,” he noted. He said cross technology makes the PoC solution independent.
Aravamudan said, “It can be upgraded to enable future ‘push-to’ enhancements and functionality such as push-to-video.”
Motorola said the solution also allows operators to negotiate interconnection agreements by increasing roaming areas for subscribers.
Sergeant said the company will begin trials in the second half of this year, but he would not disclose the partners or the carrier locations.
Motorola supports the same protocols espoused by other major players like L.M. Ericsson, Siemens AG and Nortel Networks Ltd. Nokia Corp. is taking another route in what some experts believe may create interoperability obstacles with PoC.
“There are no final standards yet,” said Sergeant, “but there are directions, and they are towards PoC as an IMS service running over IP.”
