Although Nextel Communications Inc. has announced no clear commitment on its next-generation protocol, Qualcomm Inc.’s trial of its push-to-talk solution, known as QChat, has made CDMA2000 hotter on the carrier’s plate of options.
“We’re definitely working with them (Qualcomm) on the technology,” explained Audrey Schaefer, spokeswoman for Nextel, emphasizing that no technology path has been arrived at.
BrewChat is the latest release out of Qualcomm Inc.’s pot of push-to-talk technology offerings. The San Diego-based company said it will be available for commercial use in the first quarter of next year, but carriers will decide when to roll it out.
Nextel, the pioneer of PTT services, may be one of the first to go with the product, according to Qualcomm. Qualcomm demonstrated the service on Hutchison Thailand’s CDMA2000 1x network at last week’s 3G World Congress in Thailand.
BrewChat is a person-to-person and person-to-group solution that builds on a technology known as QChat. Both BrewChat and Qchat have the same features, but QChat is not available for launch yet.
Both Nextel and Qualcomm have entered into an agreement in the past couple of years to develop PTT services over a CDMA air interface. Industry speculation has been rife that the carrier may move to CDMA2000, but the carrier has constantly denied any technology choice. Nextel has the exclusive right to QChat technology and licensing rights to use it abroad, according to Schaefer.
“We can utilize our expertise in combination with Qualcomm to enable carriers abroad to use push to chat,” she said.
Qualcomm developed QChat to match the carrier’s requirements for advanced PTT services, according to Gina Lombardi, Qualcomm senior vice president of marketing and product management.
“We have created BrewChat, which has QChat technology,” said Lombardi.
Nextel said QChat could be available to users soon, but reiterates that Nextel has not reached a technology decision for next-generation rollout.
Schaefer said the advantage of working with Qualcomm abroad is to ensure that if it adopts the technology, PTT communications will be easy with users across continents.
“We’ll be able to have our Direct Connect be able to talk to push-to-chat technology abroad,” she said.
Explaining the options open to the carrier, Schaefer said Nextel has nearly doubled its voice capacity with a Motorola Inc. software upgrade, which is the key driver of advanced services on its iDEN protocol. She added that it has a nationwide packet data network.
“We’re able to take our time to analyze options and study what our customers want and are willing to pay for,” she said, adding the carrier is able to invest in its iDEN networks to benefit customers.
QChat is superior to Brewchat’s CDMA2000 1x technology in that it has better latency than BrewChat. BrewChat has two-seconds latency, while QChat has less than a second, according to Lombardi. BrewChat is currently available and runs on what is known as Release 0 of the CDMA2000 1x standard. QChat will work on Release A, which is superior.
In the standards group, additional efficiencies led to the Release A standard specification, said Lombardi.
“BrewChat takes advantage of the high-data speed and bandwidth efficiency benefits inherent in CDMA to deliver a fast and very efficient push-to-chat solution for operators with 3G CDMA2000 1x,” said Peggy Johnson, president of Qualcomm Internet services.
Lombardi said users can set up person-to-person and person-to-group sessions on the fly. She explained that the solution is getting traction with carriers around the world, especially in Asia, where trials will be announced soon.
Qualcomm is working with a variety of handset makers, which the company expects to hit the market in the next year. But Lombardi noted that any “handset that has a PTT button and loudspeakers can be used for push to chat.” Operators will choose which handsets to use.
She added that only BREW-enabled handsets would benefit from the new offering.
