Kyocera Adds PTT, Plans 2nd Model
By Joseph Palenchar -- TWICE, 2/9/2004
SAN DIEGO — Kyocera's first push-to-talk (PTT) phone, the trimode CDMA 1x-based 3250, became available through Alltel in late January, and the handset maker plans in a couple months to announce a second PTT model for another carrier.
Alltel rolled out its PTT service in six markets in late January with plans for all markets covering 60.5 million pops by the end of March.
Kyocera's first PTT phone, available from Alltel at $99.95 with two-year contract, is based on the Kodiak platform to deliver short conversation bursts over voice channels, including analog channels.
One advantage for Kodiak is the ability to use PTT in analog markets. Kyocera's next PTT phone will use one of the three VoIP technologies adopted by other CDMA carriers. Sprint adopted Winphoria, Verizon adopted Togabi and chipmaker Qualcomm has developed BREWChat.
The next phone, a Kyocera spokesman promised, "will expand the entry-level PTT category" to below $99.95.
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