Mobile phone becomes walkie talkie

- Vodafone Sweden invests in Push to Talk Since summer 2004 Vodafone Sweden and Nokia have jointly been evaluating the communication service Push to Talk for the Swedish market. The service, which enables mobile phones to be used like a walkie-talkie, has been given the thumbs up by users in tests. Vodafone Sweden will be launching the service commercially in September for both corporate customers and consumers. Vodafone Sweden has bought Nokia’s network solution Push to Talk over Cellular. Vodafone Push to Talk is a service that enables two or more people to establish direct contact via the mobile network, and talk to each other in the same way as with a walkie-talkie. Users can set up their own user groups and simply press a button on their mobile phone to contact the person(s) they want to reach. All the call recipients hear the message simultaneously and can respond in the same manner. “Our goal is to make communication for our customers as simple as possible by offering the best mobile services in the market,” says Paul Moonga, Marketing Director at Vodafone Sweden. Vodafone Push to Talk is a very attractive service for many occupations that already use communication radio, e.g. haulage firms and service companies. With Vodafone Push to Talk, they get access to a new way of communicating. “Our customer tests also show that Push to Talk is a communication service that appeals to other target groups like young people, for example, who use most of today’s mobile services. With Push to Talk, they have a service which they can use for fast, simple voice communication with their friends,” he says. Push to Talk will be available to customers at a fixed monthly price when the service is used inside Sweden. For SEK 99/month including VAT, users can communicate in groups up to five people via Push to Talk. Business customers will also have the chance to sign up for larger groups of users. Private consumers who only want to use the service sporadically – on the ski-slope, for example – pay a daily price of SEK 9.90 for 24-hour access to the service. Vodafone Push to Talk is also available abroad in countries where Vodafone Sweden offers GPRS roaming. The normal rate is charged for sending data abroad. Vodafone Sweden will initially offer the service together with the Nokia 5140, Nokia 6230i, 6020 and 6021 handsets. More handset models will be added to the list during the autumn. The service will be available to Vodafone Sweden customers from September 2005. For more information, please contact: Paul Moonga, Marketing Director, Vodafone Sweden Tel: +46 8 734 25 26 28, e-mail: paul.moonga@vodafone.com Klas Wallström, Head of business segment, Vodafone Sweden Tel: +46 8 709 61 47 33, e-mail: klas.wallstrom@vodafone.com