Push to Talk, Nokia S60 Platform

[tomfoley]

Greetings,

One of the features in the Nokia S60 platform is the Push to Talk (PTT) option. I've seen similar technology in the U.S. in phones using Sprint/NextTel as a carrier.

From the little research (google ) that I've done on it it appears to be a feature that may or not be offered by your mobile company. Here in Ireland I'm not aware of anyone offering it.

Given its implementation on Nokia and their pretty good WiFi client (with BF as my provider) I'm just curious could a company like BF implement something on the server side to allow their customers to PTT each other?

I's see it as a kind of voice IM service.

Tom

[Guillaume]

Hi Tom,

I guess we could implement something close by upgrading our current call conference application : https://www.blueface.ie/customers/co...onference.aspx

You create a new conference room. You click on a button : "invite new people" , you fill the relevant phone numbers in a form and confirm. They are called and once they pick up added to the conference room (with 2 way audio though).

Would something like that be interesting for you ?

[tomfoley]

Hi Guillaume,

Thanks for replying and the conferencing link. Very nice GUI, it mimics the functionality of a real world conference to a virtual one quite well. I almost got a power trip imagining myself in the role of the conference chair.

What I'm on about is more of a walkie-talkie type function. PTT closely resembles an Instant Messaging application. On the S60 there are parameters for server IP, User ID etc. I have no idea as to what protocol is used, but lets just imagine BF has a PTT server doing what a PTT server is supposed to do.

The client , as the end user has a "buddy list" of other BF users who have agreed to exchange our PTT ID's. I want to contact "Mike" who is on my buddy list, I select his name and PTT him, i.e. "Hello Mike, are you there?" Just like a "YT?" opening in an IM conversation.

Mike will either reply saying "Yeah Tom, what's up"? or whatever, or else I get an "unavailable" system beep. (This is all speakerphone btw).

A half-duplex conversation ensues until one or both users hang up. The "Push" in PTT is just like a walkie-talkie, the user holds down a key on the side of the Nokia device while speaking. Trying to speak while the other party is talking produces an error beep.

Why is this a feature people will like? Well, if you've ever seen it in action you'd see why people love it. For example, I knew a few guys in construction. They used PTT often as either party knew that the other was driving nails, drilling or suchlike. Using the phone as a walkie-talkie was a lot simpler than dialling a number and the other party answering, and telephone etiquette was entirely dispensed with.

Or, a PTT call would come in and you could excuse yourself from from the pub and continuing the conversation without the other person hearing the background noise!

Well having got this far I realised that there are probably far better descriptions of what I'm on about if I did a search, so I did and here's some of what I found relevant...I think you could replace "Cellular Network" with "VOIP Network" to get my drift...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_to_talk

http://www.nextel.com/en/services/wa...overview.shtml

http://www.1800mobiles.com/nextel-walkie-talkie.html

TF

[Guillaume]

OK

I found that link as well : http://europe.nokia.com/A4153289

I'll have a chat with my colleagues and we'll see what is doable.

We'll post an update

[tomfoley]

Lovely. As I say it's just a thought. I did notice mention of terms like RTP, SIP and IP-based. Which to me sound promising.