Walt Mossberg Does Push To Talk

Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal has decided that it's time to check out the various push-to-talk offerings, and pretty much agrees with what everyone else has said about them. They do what they promise, but you might want to think twice before actually using such services. Sure, it lets you quickly connect with others, but it also means that everyone around you will hear both sides of your conversation, and it can seem a bit rude. They also found, as everyone has pointed out, that the Nextel system is much faster to make the connection than the competing services from Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless. Interestingly, they found Sprint PCS to be the same or slightly slower than Verizon's offering - when the claims had been that Sprint was using the same system, but it had been optimized to make it faster. One other interesting point was that Mossberg discovered that even if you have cellular coverage, the PTT option might not work. He noticed multiple times when his phone would tell him PTT was not available.

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