Giants Complete PTT SpecGiants Complete PTT Spec

MUNICH, STOCKHOLM, SCHAUMBURG, Ill., and ESPOO, Finland -- The Siemens Information and Communication Mobile Group (Siemens mobile), Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia announced today the completion of a jointly developed Push to talk over Cellular (PoC) specification based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as defined by 3GPP. This specification is intended to reduce marketplace fragmentation and provide end users with an easy-to-use push to talk experience wherever they may travel in the world. It was completed to meet a tremendous market interest in push to talk and IMS.

The PoC specification leverages existing 3GPP, OMA, and IETF specifications making the service easy to integrate in operators¨a existing access and packet core network infrastructures. The PoC specification is a bundle of six specifications including: Requirements, Architecture, Signaling Flows, Group/List Management, and two User-plane specifications (Transport and GPRS).

Siemens mobile, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia formed this PoC technology co-operation to produce a joint, fast track technology proposal to provide mobile operators with the assurance of easy integration, global interoperability and a competitive handset environment in the mobile communications market. The companies have submitted this specification to the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) standards body for review as a baseline to provide an access-independent and globally interoperable standard for PoC.

"Siemens mobile is committed to open standards and we see encouraging potential in Push to talk," says Rudi Lamprecht, boardmember of Siemens AG. "We had positive feedback from different operators and with this joint effort we are confident to bring Push to talk to a success."

"End-users want to be able to use any enabled handset on any available network without having to worry about if they work together. This is true for all mobile services and push to talk will be no different," says Torbjorn Nilsson, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Strategic Business Development at Ericsson. "The access independent, interoperable, global industry specification that the major vendors now have agreed on ensures that the end-users will get this."

"We realize how important interoperability is for the successful adoption of Push To Talk in the marketplace," said Philip Gilchrist, Vice President of Global Standards, Technical Asset Management and Advanced Solutions Realizations. "By working with mobile operators and other mobile handset and infrastructure leaders, we will be able to provide a clear PoC standard and rapidly bring interoperable solutions to market."

"Push to talk offers a fast and convenient way for connecting people globally," said Paul Chellgren, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Business Development, Nokia Mobile Phones Americas. "The common approach to this technology by key vendors will enable us to bring the traditional usage of a two-way radio to a completely new level and accelerate the take-off of this new service. There clearly is a lot of demand on the market for a standardized Push to talk solution."

"Customers want services they know are dependable, easy-to-use and affordable," said Rod Nelson, chief technology officer for AT&T Wireless. "An open interoperable specification for an important IMS service like push-to-talk is a big advantage and will give customers a winning solution."

Additionally, the PoC Specification has gained support from other industry leaders such as AT&T Wireless Services (NYSE: AWE), Cingular, Sonim Technologies and Sony Ericsson. The specifications will be available at http://www.siemens-mobile.com.

IP Multimedia System (IMS) is a technology standardized by 3GPP. It is a key development of the mobile communication into IP technologies. It adds the ability to deliver integrated voice and data services over the IP-based packet switched network. IMS adds two fundamental capabilities on top of the packet switched domain; firstly the ability to find a person via SIP to initiate a session, and secondly the ability to integrate new revenue generating services, such as push to talk. IMS offers a development environment that is well aligned with mainstream IP technology, thereby lowering the threshold for 3rd party application developers. By introducing IMS and its services delivery capability, a step towards a common service delivery environment is taken. Instead of providing a complete service delivery infrastructure per service, a common infrastructure can be used, facilitating a reduced time to revenue and reduced cost (OPEX and CAPEX) for new service introduction.

Siemens Information and Communication Mobile Group

LM Ericsson

Motorola Inc.

Nokia Corp.