Miphone, the trading name of Oceanic Digital Jamaica (DCJ) has introduced a new technology never before encountered on the Jamaican cell phone market. The minnows of the local mobile phone market has unveiled the "Push To Talk" (PTT) service.

Miphone's headquarters on Knutsford Boulevard, New Kingston

Miphone has gone public with the push to talk service with an advertising campaign including television and newspaper ads.
"Our intention is to grab the public and in particular commercial business operators with this product," MiPhone's Product Development Specialist, Noel Esty told Sunday Finance, in an interview at Miphone's head office on Knutsford Boulevard, New Kingston.
"Miphone will market this new service like nothing before. We will be very bullish about it." Esty said.

The (MiDirect) Push- to- Talk is a walkie-talkie type service that allows you to instantly reach others by eliminating the dialling and ringing steps in a regular cellular call.Push-to-Talk calls can also be made to one person or to a group of people who are PTT subscribers.
He said businesses would no longer be paying out huge sums of money to keep in touch with personnel while on the job. The new service will mean that they will be able to communicate within a group of up to 90 people at the push of a button.

With the PTT MiDirect function you can instantly speak to a team, individually or as a group all at once, at the touch of a button. Users can organise meetings, dispatch jobs, send out an urgent request, locate team members and communicate important news to the right people without delay.

Relatively priced at J$7500 plus GCT for the required handset, a Kyocera 444, customers will pay J$900 monthly for the service that will offer islandwide coverage in all 14 parishes plus regular cell calls on the same instrument, utilising Miphone's CDMA technology.

Plans are afoot to bring in other handsets that are PTT capable.
Push-to-Talk is the convergence of a standard cellular handset and a two-way 'walkie-talkie' radio rolled into one.
The Push-to-Talk service was made popular on the mobile scene some years ago by Nextel and Verizon, two of North America's best known mobile providers.

"The system is currently being used in developed economies around the world and allows for instant communication.

Esty told Sunday Finance that Miphone will not primarily target commercial enterprises but private individuals also who wish to have the added function to widen communication. He however said, businesses would be approached with the intention to create a niche market.
"This is just another step in providing all your mobile needs with one mobile phone," Esty added.

Already sales of the new product has been going well since its launch two weeks ago, with a number of taxi companies and a large local company signing up.
Esty said that "whereas cell phones have difficulty receiving signals in certain locations, the PTT system can, in that scenario, transmit voice data regardless."

Miphone currently has 100 per cent coverage of the island, but is hoping that Push- to- Talk will help to bring additional subscribers to its CDMA network. With a subscriber base of 100,000, MiPhone is banking on Push-to-Talk to bring more people over to its CDMA network.

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