Peter, who is on a business trip to France, urgently needs to speak to colleagues. So the executive takes out his Orange Treo 600 and glances at the screen. The list on the display tells him that of his seven team members, five have their mobiles switched on and are ready to accept calls. One button press later and Peter speaks into his mobile. Seconds later, the quintet hears Peter's voice asking if they are available for a conference call. One by one they respond and after a few more clicks, the five move from a "walkie-talkie-type one person speaking conversation" to a full five-way conference phone call.
This kind of scenario could become commonplace in a few months' time when mobile phone network Orange launches Talk Now, an enhanced version of a service popular in the US called Push To Talk (PTT).
Essentially, the system has two main features. First, users can tell at a glance who, from their list of contacts, has their mobile switched on and can talk. Second, PTT enables a mobile phone to moonlight as a walkie-talkie. Except that, unlike traditional walkie-talkies, which have a range of a few hundred feet, PTT-equipped phones work over phone networks. In theory, users can contact someone no matter where they are. There's no need to dial a number and in seconds users can speak to pre-configured groups.
PTT has been available in the US for more than a year with three operators - Nextel, Sprint and Verizon - attracting up to 12m subscribers.
Early systems in the US focused on the small business market, enabling groups such as plumbers and exhibition workers to easily and cheaply converse. More recently, PTT has been rolled out to consumers and has proved popular with fans of action sports such as skiing.
Orange's Talk Now is aimed at the corporate sector. It has been trialled by the RAC and IBM, and the first handset to include the software that renders it compatible with Talk Now, Orange's Treo 600, is a high-end, Palm-based smartphone popular with corporates. Ian Pond, Orange's vice-president customer marketing small business solutions, says the company will then roll out the service to smaller businesses and then consumers. It promises 1m Talk Now users in 10 countries by the end of 2005.
Orange is also working to offer a range of handsets compatible with Talk Now. There are versions of the software compatible with Symbian, the other major phone operating system.
Yet will Push To Talk chime with European corporates and consumers? Not everyone thinks so. "One of the reasons it has been relatively successful in the US is that they don't really have a culture of text messaging," argues Simon Edwards, marketing director of telecoms software vendor Intervoice. "So some of the uses for PTT are taken care of in Europe by texting."
"There will have to be a fairly sizeable cultural shift," adds Jason Chapman, from analysts Gartner. "You can see IT groups in large corporations becoming comfortable with the technology as they will be able to recognise its benefits quickly, but I think groups of sales people on the road - one of Talk Now's prime markets - might find it strange to have their boss talking to them out of the blue."
There may also be problems with the PTT system Orange has chosen. The company has plumped for a high-end version of PTT developed by Kodiak Systems. It is based on circuit switching technology over GSM rather than the packet switching systems that predominate in the US. The time lag between a person speaking and their voice coming through is thus shorter - two seconds as opposed to around five. Voice quality is apparently superior and, unlike existing PTT systems, Talk Now calls can be converted into full two-way phone calls at the press of a button.
Other networks and manufacturers have, however, backed the rival Push to Talk over cellular protocol packet-based systems, and interoperability between Talk Now and other PTT services could pose a challenge.
Pricing could also be another key issue. Orange hasn't set prices but Chapman estimates that PTT calls could be as much as €0.40 a minute - much higher than voice calls. Paolo Pescatore, senior analyst at IDC, believes that if the pricing is too high, PTT will not attract subscribers. "The price of talk is cheap in Europe. People are fairly comfortable with their phone's functionality, too. PTT could be this year's bubble."
Networks such as Virgin and Vodafone are likely to follow Orange's lead, and both Motorola and Nokia have said that by the end of next year, all their handsets will be PTT compatible.
Yet it might not be the voice element that provides PTT's killer application. The presence facility that enables users to see if a person has their mobile phone on and is ready to receive calls is sure to appeal to business users and all kinds of consumers - from teenagers to parents wanting to be able to instantly contact children. Even if Europeans don't always fancy barging in on other people's lives through a PTT call, they will take comfort in knowing they can if they need to.
