Sprint PCS said it has deployed a Session Initiation Protocol platform, and its Ready Link push-to-talk service uses the protocol. Sprint purchased the platform from SIP company Dynamicsoft.
“As we continue to roll out multimedia services, our customers will discover that we have redefined the user experience,” said Oliver Valente, vice president of technology development at Sprint. “The Dynamicsoft SIP-based services platform will set the stage for a broad array of new services that take advantage of the capabilities of PCS Vision.”
Essentially, SIP is a way to start and stop a conversation that is conducted over an IP-based network. In wireless, it basically replaces much of the signaling work of the SS7 specification. In that respect, the technology plays a relatively small role in the whole scheme of things. However, the functions and services that can be built using SIP are significant-and especially important for wireless.
The reason is that the wireless industry as a whole is moving slowly toward all-IP-based networks. Because most PTT technologies work on IP networks using SIP, it marks the first tentative steps of an industry moving toward a digital future.
There also are a number of SIP services beyond PTT. Presence and availability functions could be added directly to a phone’s address book. SIP could be used for auto conferencing, a service that could track a group of co-workers and instantly set up a conference call when all are available. SIP even could enhance caller ID functions by pushing not only the caller’s phone number but also a picture to the recipient.
