Wireless

October 25, 2002
Push-to-talk with your friends over wireless networks

Pradeep Chakraborty

UNITED STATES AND INDIA -- What if there was a feature built into our mobile phones that instantly informed us how many of our friends or relatives were online simultaneously and allowed us to talk to them at the push of a button! Would not it be better if the feature allowed us to do instant conferencing, group calling or cell broadcasting with at least ten or fifteen of them!! What if the call charges for using such features were lower than what we generally pay for a normal mobile phone call!

This scenario may not be a dream any longer as such a feature or voice service, called push-to-talk, is being developed and should soon be a permanent fixture on our mobile phones. Leading this dream for push-to-talk capability is San Mateo, California based Sonim Technologies Inc. -- who has been quietly developing this solution for instant communications over wireless data networks. The two-and-a-half-year-old firm also has a software development center in Bangalore -- where all the work related to product development is being carried out. It has a workforce of 70 with around 50 engineers stationed in Bangalore.

Speaking to Convergence Plus, Rahul Khanna, Director of Marketing, in the US said Sonim had recently closed its first round of funding worth $21.6 million -- with investors such as 3i, Apax Partners and BV Capital chipping in. He said, "The signals for the market are that investors have confidence in the company."

Commenting on Sonim's capabilities, Khanna added: "We have been building an IP-based platform for instant communications over wireless data networks. We are creating a platform for higher revenue generating applications over data networks. We enable one-to-one or one-to-n communications in real-time over data networks. All that I have to do is, look at my contact book on my mobile phone, chose people who are available, and click a button to start a voice chat."

Push-to-talk over GPRS
Sonim is targeting the push-to-talk solution for mobile phones over GPRS networks. Explaining the firm's stance, Khanna said: "Several GSM operators have rolled out GPRS networks. However, most operators have delayed further investments in 3G. They are looking for returns on their initial investments, The operators are looking to increase revenue or reduce churn. There are very few compelling applications in GPRS as of now. We are offering this solution to the GPRS operators. These applications will address a key agenda for operators."

Sonim has built the solution on the GPRS infrastructure, enabling users to do group calling. Khanna explained: "I press a button and you get an invite. If you accept, you and I can talk in walkie-talkie mode, like you do with Yahoo Messenger on the desktop. If you refuse, I can leave a message. When you press the play button, your phone, that voice message is played on your phone." All the media is stored on the server. "No additional memory or processing power is required. This content is streamed to you in real-time," he clarified.

Those using push-to-talk feature on their mobiles will see an instant communications icon on their mobile phones. Khanna said that solution is actually ported through the chipset within the mobile phone or the handheld device. He said: "There are a few major vendors who have a significant portion of the market. This ability to be on the chipset allows the service to be deployed on a wide range of mobile phones. Next, we need to sell the server to the operators, who would then sell the service! Our deal is with the wireless operators only and we are not selling to any end user."

He added: "Our platform has ability to leverage on the existing investment in GPRS infrastructure and create a path to move to 3G. We have used the protocol that is part of the 3GPP standard. We work under GPRS. We work with SIP and RTP, and optimise voice traffic for lower quality, lower bandwidth environments to allow operators to do voice over wireless data."

Khanna said that applications are enabled with the platform. As an example, Nextel in the United States has 10 million customers and the application is based on TDMA. However, it has a proprietary solution from Motorola -- a walkie-talkie like service. Nevertheless, the application has allowed it to maintain a solid ARPU -- around 40 percent to 50 percent more than what the other operators have. He added that this service is the US equivalent of SMS, on voice. Since Motorola's solution is proprietary, it is a limitation. "It is like a broadcast service and you do not know whether the other person is available," Khanna said.

Sonim's target markets are Western Europe, North America, and Asia. It is currently in active discussions with various operators in different markets. The firm is focusing its energies on markets that would give it more return on investment. Hence, it makes sense for Sonim to initially follow Europe and North America. As an example, Khanna pointed out that such a service in Italy -- which creates a group and helps to communicate -- will reduce the churn.

Regarding deployment in India, Loga Logarajah, Executive Vice President of Engineering, said: "Our discussions are more on the development path. GPRS networks in India are more immature now. We need to see when does it make economic sense to roll out a service here, and when the time comes, we will. This solution has tremendous potential in the Asian market." He added: "Our engineering activities and development are done in Bangalore, where 45 people are working in product development on the client and server side." Loga was earlier with Nortel before joining Sonim.

Commenting on whether the solution would work on CDMA, Khanna said with the current implementation of 1X, it is not possible to have similar performance. However, the solution will definitely work on CDMA.

Delivering superior return on bandwidth
Besides person to person (P2P) voice, Loga said that Sonim is offering integrated voice and text services as well as machine to man (M2M). "Within integrated services, we have the ability to move voice and text in a single IP session. Khanna added: "In machine to man (M2M) -- for example, we can even hear cricket scores over GPRS or even call an IVR to check my voice mail -- that would be a great example of moving all that circuit traffic over data networks, and that is something the operators would be excited about."

Sonim's solution claims to deliver superior return on bandwidth. Khanna said that as an example, moving all that circuit-based traffic over packet data networks is definitely something operators are interested in.

"We can move traffic over packet infrastructure. We have created a highly efficient means of moving real-time voice traffic over data networks in a bandwidth-limited environment. I can still move voice traffic even over 9.6Kbps data stream," he added.

Trends in wireless data
Regarding the trends worldwide in wireless data, Khanna said that so far they are not as exciting as the operators would have liked. Besides, the adoption of GPRS has been moderate so far. Firstly, the GPRS networks are still immature. Next, there are issues regarding device availability and interoperability. However, by December, he expected stronger GPRS devices in place and MMS to be settling down.

Khanna said: "Lot of operators are betting on MMS to drive the replacement handset market. Wireless data has been successful in Korea and Japan -- about 45 percent accounts for P2P communications. It gives us lot of confidence. There is an additional form of communications -- more conducive to real-time, instantaneous dialogue."

As the market rolls out, the operators would start tapping the different market segments. Once that starts happening, they would need applications that are value based and not volume based, added Khanna. He said that the Philippines is a very interesting market. "We are studying markets very carefully and determine where we are going to start," he continued.

Logarajah added that most basic services are in the handset in Japan -- whatever is provided by i-mode. "Our approach is to integrate the client on the handset. It is not much difficult to understand," he said. According to him, the killer applications today are a) high utility (e.g. SMS), b) network effect -- the value to the end user grows as more people have it, and c) wide availability.

Commenting on Sonim's solution, Logarajah said: "If you can make this available to even a small percent of the global devices, you would have created a significant new business. It can work across the IP environment and can be ported to PDA, laptop and even PCs.

Khanna added: "Yahoo does not have a billing relationship and an operator would love to tap Yahoo's IM customers. If Orange agrees to do a deal with Yahoo -- our mobile users can talk to their PC users."

N. Sekar, Senior Manager of Operations, Sonim Communications India (Pvt) Ltd demonstrated the solution to this writer over handheld devices in Bangalore. On first looks, the time saving one-to-n feature definitely looks the most appealing.

Contact:
Sonim Technologies Inc./Sonim Communications India (Pvt) Ltd
Tel: 1-650-378-8100/91-80-238-4190/91/92/93
Fax: 1-650-378-8109/91-80-238-4193/94
Email: nsekar@sonim-india.com
Web: www.sonimtech.com