Trans-Atlantic Mobile Phone 'Walkie-Talkie' Test Successful
prnewswire.com
SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Jan. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- FastMobile, an Illinois based mobile phone services company, announced that it successfully completed a voice walkie-talkie (push-to-talk) test between Chicago and London using two standard mobile phones.
Group voice and text instant messages were sent simultaneously among the participants. The test used a compact FastMobile application running on off-the-shelf Nokia 7650 and 3650 handsets with Symbian operating systems. A FastMobile server, located in suburban Chicago and untethered to any operator, routed the digitized voice and text conversations across the GSM mobile Internet data networks (or General Packet Radio Service, GPRS) of US operator, T-Mobile, and UK operators, Orange and Vodafone. The successful test was completed without requiring any special hardware to be added to the either the mobile handset or the operators' networks.
In the US, the mobile phone operator Nextel has popularized cellular phone-based walkie-talkie services, particularly within the business segment.
To date such services are limited to Nextel customers and have a limited range -- usually within the customer's home metropolitan area -- although Nextel has recently announced that they have started rollout of a nationwide service, expected to be completed by the end of this year.
By the second quarter of 2003, FastMobile plans to commercialize the walkie-talkie feature into its fastxt(TM) mobile instant messaging service which is now available in the UK. FastMobile is also planning to bring fastxt(TM) and its whole suite of instant communications service to the US later this year. fastxt(TM) is an enhanced mobile messaging service based on what is arguably one of the killer applications of the PC world today, instant
messaging. fastxt(TM), allows subscribers to see when their friends are online and then lets them send instant text messages simultaneously to as many friends as they like. fastxt(TM) also lets subscribers send and receive ordinary SMS text messages as well as communicate with MSN Messenger(TM) friends at their PC's. FastMobile's services work on Symbian OS handsets and many of the newer Java handsets.
FastMobile will be demonstrating this walkie-talkie feature and its suite of instant communications services at February's 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, France, in Hall 2, stand F10.
About FastMobile:
FastMobile is the company that brings you fastxt(TM). FastMobile has operations in the US, Europe and Asia delivering value added messaging services over GPRS and other 2.5G and 3G mobile networks. FastMobile's first
service, fastxt(TM), brings the power of instant messaging to mobile phones and will be followed with a range of innovative services that link the power of the internet to the immediacy of mobile.
The company is backed by private investment and venture capital from US companies BlueStar Ventures, Leo Capital Holdings and Red Barn Investments. The company raised $4 million in its first round of funding. For more
information, please visit FastMobile's Web Site at fastmobile.com .
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This sounds like voice instant messaging to me, rather than the real walkie talkie like push to talk that Nextel has. That would mean that the recipient wouldn't start to hear your message until after you completed it. Hope they can do better than that. |
