Sprint has decided on Qualcomm's QChat solution to power the company's next generation push-to-talk service. After the merger with Nextel, push-to-talk migration became a very important topic for Sprint. Since PTT is a major part of Nextel's service and Sprint plans to transition away from the iDEN infrastructure, a robust PTT system that could span both networks was needed. Enter QChat which will run on Sprint's EV-DO Rev A network and be able to facilitate PTT between both PCS and iDEN customers.
Featuring a call set-up latency of less than one second between handsets, QChat is expected to offer exceptional call set-up performance and bandwidth savings in comparison to other walkie-talkie approaches.
Sprint expects to launch the new technology in early 2008. Dual-mode CDMA/iDEN phones are expected to launch this year which is the first step of the migration away from iDEN.