PUSH-TO-TALK – WHAT ALTERNATIVE DID YOU FIND
FOR THE DEFUNCT NEXTEL PTT SERVICES?
On June 30, 2013, the Nextel iDEN network
was taken off-line, which had been a key PTT
communications resource for many public safety
agencies. It left the Cypress Police Department with a
significant void when it came to radio communications
for our Criminal Investigations Bureau and special teams.
Our 800 MHz Land Mobile Radio
(LMR) works great for in-county communications, but most of our surveillance operations and radio communications extend far beyond
our county’s LMR range.
Soon after losing the iDEN PTT system, we found ourselves
in a surveillance operation tracking a serial bank robber to the
San Diego border nearly 100 miles from Orange County. The
county’s LMR simplex (talk-around) channels were our primary means of communication, which was our only option at the
time, but it left gaps. Fortunately the operation went smooth and
ended up with the suspect in custody, but we knew we had to
find a new PTT solution.
Research revealed other cell phone carriers were entering
the PTT space, but this meant new hardware and additional PTT
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