Sprint’s PTT

Sprint PCS joined Verizon Wireless and Nextel in the push-to-talk arena by announcing plans to offer a service that lets customers use their wireless phones as if they were walkie-talkies. Sprint PCS’ Ready Link service will compete with Nextel’s 10-year-old DirectConnect service, which has 12 million customers; and the Verizon Wireless service, which was unveiled in August. Ready Link plans cost $15 per month for unlimited use, in addition to a standard voice services plan that starts at $35 per month. Customers have the same phone number for both voice and Ready Link services. http://www.nwfusion.com/edge/news/2003/1117sprint.html

Sprint PCS joined Verizon Wireless and Nextel in the push-to-talk arena by announcing plans to offer a service that lets customers use their wireless phones as if they were walkie-talkies. Sprint PCS’ Ready Link service will compete with Nextel’s 10-year-old DirectConnect service, which has 12 million customers; and the Verizon Wireless service, which was unveiled in August. Ready Link plans cost $15 per month for unlimited use, in addition to a standard voice services plan that starts at $35 per month. Customers have the same phone number for both voice and Ready Link services.

https://www.nwfusion.com/edge/news/2003/1117sprint.html

Sprint PCS rival AT&T Wireless began offering services on its EDGE – Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution – network, promising higher data transfer speeds than any of its competitors with a national network. The EDGE upgrade allows users to transfer data with average speeds of between 100K bit/sec and 130K bit/sec, up to twice as fast as Sprint PCS’ 3G service and three times faster than dial-up, AT&T Wireless executives claimed. The AT&T Wireless EDGE service is available across the U.S. where AT&T Wireless offers Global System for Mobile Communications and General Packet Radio Service coverage. Further expansion is planned, including Canada. Limited-use subscription plans for the EDGE service start at $20 and go up to $60, where the user gets a 40M-byte data transfer allowance. An unlimited data transfer plan costs $80 monthly.

https://www.nwfusion.com/edge/news/2003/1118attless.html

Voice over IP presents a threat to SBC’s ability to retain customers and their access lines. Two to three years out and over the long term, VoIP alternatives from competitors will make it tougher for SBC, and perhaps other RBOCs, to hold on to primary and second-line telephony customers, said Randall Stephenson, senior vice president and CFO of SBC. Access lines are the “foundation of revenue” for SBC and other RBOCs, but they have been losing access lines to technology substitution, such as wireless and cable telephony, and to competitors reselling the RBOC facilities as mandated by the FCC’s Unbundled Network Element-Platform regulations.

https://www.nwfusion.com/edge/news/2003/1118sbc.html

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