A new report from The Yankee Group has commented that the U.S. operator Nextel has demonstrated a very successful business case by offering bundles of regular voice and push-to-talk (PTT) services to its customers. Because Nextel's PTT is based on Motorola's proprietary iDEN technology, traditional GSM and CDMA mobile operators haven't been able to take advantage of such features until the recent implementation of next-generation PTT technology: push-to-talk over cellular (PoC). In the U.S. market, where postpaid wireless subscribers dominate the user base, Nextel has proved that PTT is a killer application. Even the PTT service newcomers-including Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS and ALLTEL-have enjoyed great momentum since launching PTT services.
The Yankee Group estimates there were approximately 1 million total PTT subscribers from these three operators at the end of 2004. They expect T-Mobile and Cingular Wireless to launch similar PTT services in 9 months. Despite the success stories in the U.S. market, there are still issues that make the industry wonder whether PTT is a killer application in markets outside the United States, such as potential voice revenue cannibalization in prepaid market environments.
Deploying a PoC solution in a packet-switching (PS) domain still is challenging in 2.5G network environments where PoC requires relatively longer initial call setup time, limited bandwidth compromises voice quality and a lack of QoS support for real-time voice services exists. Yankee also notes that launching PTT services in 2.5G packet networks requires good coverage for data services, which often poses a challenge to operators due to low data user penetration. It's particularly challenging for GPRS operators but less challenging for CDMA1x operators.
The Yankee Group recently conducted a return on investment (ROI) study on applications in 2.5G environments. Their study shows that the best strategy for growing revenue and reducing cannibalization risks is to simultaneously launch multiple services including PTT, ad hoc conferencing, availability and instant messaging over a common platform based on IMS or softswitch architecture.
Revenue Split Among PTT, Ad Hoc Conferencing, Availability and Instant Voice Messaging
Source: The Yankee Group, 2005"
Posted to the site on 10th January 2005
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/11632.php