A Look At Verizon's Push-To-Talk Service
A good piece by Mike Langberg looking at Verizon Wireless's new push-to-talk offering, comparing it to Nextel's offering. It sounds like it does some things better (having a "presence" list so you know who's available) and some things worse (slower connect times). I also agree that the pricing is way too high (though, that's no surprise with a wireless carrier offering a new service). They want $20/month just for PTT and if you're contacting groups instead of individuals it's got a per minute per user charge - which can add up pretty quickly. While I can see how PTT would be nice to have, I think carriers have misread the market, based on Nextel's success. Nextel focused on businesses where PTT made perfect sense. Those people are willing to pay extra for it. Verizon Wireless (and the other carriers) seem to think that just about anyone values PTT the same way - which is simply not true. When taken to a general audience, consumers won't be willing to pay nearly as much (and I won't even bother discussing interoperability questions...).
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
