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AT&T Lures Sprint Subs With PTT iPhone App

June 10, 2013 | Sarah Reedy |
AT&T has earned another bragging right in its push-to-talk (PTT) battle with Sprint: It became the first carrier to offer 4G PTT capabilities on the iPhone Monday.

Via a new enhanced PTT app available to the iPhone 5 and 4S, AT&T is bringing business customers the walkie talkie-like service over its LTE network or Wi-Fi. The app will integrate with other business apps and includes a contact list of up to 1,000 names and the ability to group-call up to 250 people at once.

Why this matters
PTT has long been a mainstay of field workers across a number of industries, and Sprint Nextel Corp. was the champion of the service over its Nextel iDEN network. Sprint, however, is slated to finish shutting down the Nextel network by the end of this month. While it's been working hard to migrate its customers to its CDMA Direct Connect service with enhanced P2T services, AT&T has been busy poaching them away. Having support for the iPhone -- which no other operator currently offers -- will help it continue to do so.

The battle for PTT subs, typically content on 2G networks, is quickly becoming a 4G game. Like Sprint, AT&T is also planning to shut down its 2G network, a position that Mobeen Khan, AT&T's executive director of advanced mobility solutions, said in a CTIA interview that every carrier will face sooner or later.

"All carriers feel the pinch of spectrum and need to transition to next-generation technology," Khan said. "It is inevitable."

For more

— Sarah Reedy, Senior Editor, Light Reading


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