VANCOUVER — Telus is now offering next-generation, broadband push-to-talk (PTT) service on its wireless network for its business and government customers, thanks to a partnership with California-based ESChat, a provider of secure PTT technology for LTE communications.
According to a news release from ESChat on Tuesday, the companies first completed a commercial contract in May 2019 and have been in soft-launch with a number of customers since late 2018. After testing new features and adding customers over the past year, carrier integration has been completed and the ESChat solution is now commercially available for Telus business and government customers, says the release.
The Telus PTT offering is priced at $7.50 per month and includes secure push-to-talk, live location tracking and mapping, and secure group multimedia messaging. Telus also offers historical “bread crumb tracking” for an additional $2.50 per month. Telus will invoice customers on their monthly wireless bill, and its customer care team will handle Tier-1 customer support, says the release.
“ESChat Push-to-Talk harnesses the power of fast interaction and interoperability to make professional group communication secure and reliable for our customers,” said Marshall Berkin, vice-president of national business solutions for Telus, in the release. “Through our collaboration with ESChat, we’re helping businesses empower their mobile workforces while driving agility and cost savings.”
Telus has previously offered PTT communications on its wireless network, first in 1996 when it began offering its Mike PTT service, which was powered by Motorola’s iDEN narrowband technology. Newer-generation broadband PTT service supports features and capabilities not available in narrowband LMR (land mobile radio) and wireless carrier PTT services, says the news release.
Used by all branches of the U.S. military, as well as U.S. federal, state and local public safety agencies, ESChat is able to operate over and across any wireless network, including all commercial carriers, private 3G/4G/5G networks and Wi-Fi. ESChat supports standards-based interoperability with LMR radio networks, including P25 via the native Inter RF Subsystem Interface (ISSI) protocol and DMR (digital mobile radio) via the native Inter Application Interface Specification (AIS) protocol. ESChat also supports interoperability via RoIP to all LMR radio networks, regardless of radio technology or operating frequency band.
