Verizon aren’t going to be outdone by competitor Sprint’s QChat PTT service, so they have just announced they will also be rolling out a better improved Push-To-Talk service sometime later this summer.

Sprint Nextel Corp have been king of the hill of the PTT market with their iDEN based Nextel operation, however it seems the two CDMA carriers are now looking to bring Push-To-Talk service to the populace in a big way.

No details as yet on what technology Verizon is planning to use for their new Push-To-Talk system, along with no timeframe or launch estimate, but if Verizon get it right and can successfully market their new PTT they just may be able to give Sprint a run for the PTT money.

Sprint Nextel’s latest push began earlier in the year when they launched the Sanyo Corp. Pro 200 and Pro 700 mobile handsets. Both handsets include Qualcomm Inc.’s QChat technology, a feature that allows the CDMA handsets to “talk” with their iDEN counterparts. And at the moment these new mobile phones are only available in Colorado, Kansas, and Cincinnati. However, the director of wireless product development for Sprint Nextel, Ajit Bhatia has said the carrier plans to make these phones available across the nation in coming months.

Analyst at Gartner, Tole Hart says: “Sprint is the biggest push-to-talk player and Verizon will have a hard time. Push-to-talks users are part of a group and to move them you’d have to move the whole group. Less than one second connection is what people expect and I think Verizon have to improve their products to be in the ballpark.”

Source — RCR