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
- Qualcomm Preps 4G Walkie-Talkie Tech
- AT&T, Sprint Duke it Out for Push-to-Talk Subs
- AT&T: Say Goodbye to 2G in 2017
BTW -- Khan says that all will eventually shutter 2G. Raco Wireless CEO John Horn's response to that was "psh" (more or less) -- that will be years from now for some, and they will likely shut down 3G at that time as well, so there isn't a point in moving to 4G today just because you're worried about an eventual 2G shutdown.