U.S. Cellular removes PTT from retail channels

U.S. Cellular Corp. has taken its push-to-talk retail offering out of commission and limited the sale of walkie-talkie phones and service only to business channels.
Retail stores and call centers will still support business PTT customers, according to the carrier, but the SpeedTalk product will only be available through the company’s business sales team.
“Through research we found that consumers interested in walkie-talkie service have found more value in our new calling plans including Unlimited Mobile-to-Mobile Calling and Unlimited Call Me Minutes,” said Alan D. Ferber, U.S. Cellular’s vice president of marketing and sales operations.
U.S. Cellular rolled out its push to talk services in July 2005. At the time, the carrier said it expected that the service would appeal to both business and consumer segments, but that it likely would see the greatest adoption from families and teens. Such thinking was prevalent when most of the nation’s major carriers launched PTT services in 2005 and 2006.
In other PTT news, Sprint Nextel Corp. added national and international unlimited push-to-talk options, without anytime minutes, for $36 and $46 per month, respectively.