'Push to talk' gets international hookup

Motorola and Nextel Communications look set to make a cell phone walkie-talkie feature called "push to talk" available to dialers internationally, as rivals struggle to launch their own services inside the United States.

On Thursday, Motorola announced that Jordanian carrier Fastlink will be the first company in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region to use push-to-talk (PTT) technology. Fastlink plans to introduce a pilot version of a service similar to Nextel's popular DirectConnect, which creates an instant connection between two cell phones.

In addition, Nextel Mexico, owned by Nextel subsidiary push PTT beyond U.S. borders.

With PTT, callers need only push a single button to connect to another cell phone. It happens in less than a second, as with walkie-talkies. Because there's no time spent dialing or making a connection to a network, calls are shorter and less expensive than usual. It's won favor with corporations with mobile work forces that can benefit from such instant communication.

In North America, Nextel is now facing challenges from U.S. carriers Sprint PCS, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless, which intend to launch copycat PTT services by the end of the year. Pushing PTT outside the United States will provide Nextel and Motorola with an even bigger advantage, Nextel executives have said.