Orange Launches Talk Now Service

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.orange.com/English/media/pressarticle.asp?id=106' target='_blank'>http://www.orange.com/English/media/pressarticle.asp?id=106</a><br /><br /></div>"Orange today launched a unique international service, offering instant voice communication and easy-to-access group calling and messaging with the added benefit of a real-time availability icon, so you can see who is available and who’s not. The service is initially being trialled by business customers. Talk Now™– similar to the US Push-To-Talk service but with a more advanced feature-set and richer functionality - will give Orange customers a new way of communicating alongside their existing voice and messaging services. Talk Now™ will be launched in 10 countries this year, starting with the UK and France in Q2 2004.<br /><br />Building on the Orange Experience, which promises to be simple, compelling and personal, Talk Now™ creates an immediate connection between two or more mobile phones so minimal time is spent searching for or dialling individual telephone numbers. You can see who is available to speak or receive single or group messages instantly. Talk Now™ will also allow Orange customers to:<br /><br />• create buddy lists that can be used to facilitate instant conference calling <br />• know when contacts are available to talk and when they are busy<br />• speak to or message a contact who has selected themselves as available <br />• record a conference call and send it to others if they are not available<br />• send a voice message to other Talk Now™ users at the touch of a button"<br /><br />The press release doesn't specify whether or not this service works with their Smartphones, but my assumption is that it's GPRS-based and will work with any GPRS phone. I wonder how well this service will work? I've heard very mixed reviews about the equivalent services in the USA, largely because packet-based networks aren't designed for the type of low latency that push-to-talk services require. I'm no network engineer though, so I could be very wrong about that. Anyone know more?

[freitasm]

They're using the Kodiak platform announced last year http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=1780 platform. Apparently they tried the Nokia solution but delays were so long that they decided to go for other products. This is the first non-CDMA solution Kodiak platform released http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=2143.

[Mike Temporale]

Talk Now™ will also allow Orange customers to:

• create buddy lists that can be used to facilitate instant conference calling
• know when contacts are available to talk and when they are busy
• speak to or message a contact who has selected themselves as available
• record a conference call and send it to others if they are not available
• send a voice message to other Talk Now™ users at the touch of a button"


Those features sound pretty cool. Almost like a Messenger for phone calls. I especially like the idea of knowing when a contact is available for talking.

[freitasm]

largely because packet-based networks aren't designed for the type of low latency that push-to-talk services require. I'm no network engineer though, so I could be very wrong about that. Anyone know more?

The way some of these work on GPRS is basically recording a message, converting into packets and sending over the GPRS connection to a server. The other side receives a SMS notification, retrieves the message and plays it. Very simple. Latency on GPRS is only a problem for activities that require multiple connections, like web browsing. E-mail is very good at it, because it's a single connection. So it's this kind of service.

Almost like a Messenger for phone calls. I especially like the idea of knowing when a contact is available for talking.

Don't wait for it. Have a look at http://www.fastchat.com. This one works with any network and is based on the model I've described a paragraph earlier. The problem is that there's no Windows Mobile Smartphone client yet for these kind of software.

[Joff]

It will only be available on the Treo 600 initially. More phones are planned to follow according to Orange.

I guess the phone needs to support push to talk at the radio link layers. So, I wonder if it is a feature that can easily be added to a phone? Or if it is just a handful of mobiles designed for this purpose which will support it?

[Joff]

It will only be available on the Treo 600 initially. More phones are planned to follow according to Orange.

I guess the phone needs to support push to talk at the radio link layers. So, I wonder if it is a feature that can easily be added to a phone? Or if it is just a handful of mobiles designed for this purpose which will support it?

Looks like I'm wrong. PTT is IP based over GPRS networks. Not circuit-switched calls like I first thought (although a similar feature using voice calls also exists in the GSM standard). I'm not sure which way Orange went.

So, I wonder in the case of IP over GPRS if it would be possible to provide a SW upgrade for smartphone, or some third party SW? That would be cool 8O