Alltel to offer P2T service starting Thursday
Little Rock, Ark., communications provider Alltel today said it would begin offering press-to-talk service across the company’s digital and analog networks beginning Thursday. Dubbed “Touch2Talk,” the service initially will be available in markets representing about half of the carrier’s points of presence, including Little Rock, Cleveland, Phoenix, Charlotte, New Orleans and Tampa. It will be available throughout Alltel’s footprint by March 31, the company said. Alltel has chosen Kodiak Networks’ Real-Time Exchange (RTX) system to deliver the press-to-talk capability. The Alltel deployment is the first commercial launch of the RTX system, according to Kodiak CEO Craig Farrill. Last week, Orange, a unit of France Telecom, said it would offer a press-to-talk service, though no deployment timetable was announced. However, Orange will use a GSM version of RTX, according to Kodiak.