YOUTH MOVEMENT HELPS PUSH-TO-TALK GROWTH

Despite its initial success with the blue- and white-collar crowds, Push to Talk has a new patron: youth. According to a new study from In-Stat, youth will be a major contributor to P2T's slow but steady growth in the next five years, driven by the launch of youth-oriented brands like Nextel's Boost and new P2T services launched by other major carriers.

In-Stat analyst Becky Diercks said the subscriber base for P2T in the U.S. will double in five years, growing from 16.8 million in 2004 to 33.6 million in 2009. While some of that growth will continue in the blue- and white-collar segments pioneered by Nextel, many of the new subscribers will be kids ages 10 to 18, Diercks said.

While those predictions may seem to mirror the types of services that are available today (Nextel's business-oriented service and Boost's youth angle), it's more than mere coincidence. Surveys conducted by In-Stat found that both those demographics had the highest comfort level using a walkie-talkie-like service, and those segments would also be the most likely to move to a carrier in order to get P2T, Diercks said.

“Blue- and gray-collar workers don't really care about a walkie-talkie like service broadcasting their conversations,” Diercks said. “In fact, many of them find it useful. The same goes for youth. But when you're talking about normal consumers, most of them don't want to share their private conversations broadcast all over the place.”

Diercks said P2T is becoming more of a value-added service like voice mail or caller ID, a commodity carriers can offer for an additional fee over the price of standard voice service, not an enhanced or special feature of the service. But while average revenue per user for P2T is expected to fall, InStat also found that there is significant consumer interest in the service. According to its survey, one-third of all respondents said they would consider switching to another carrier to receive P2T.