SouthernLINC takes push-to-talk nationwide with Sprint roaming agreement

SouthernLINC Wireless has scored a long-sought-after roaming deal with Sprint (NYSE:S), allowing it to offer push-to-talk (PTT) and data services in addition to voice calling outside of its southeastern U.S. territory (Briefing Room: SouthernLINC press release). SouthernLINC has offered voice roaming through Nextel and then with Sprint since 2001, but because PTT is a core service on its iDEN network, it has been trying for 10 years to expand its agreement to expand its walkie-talkie capabilities to a nationwide footprint.

SouthernLINC spokeswoman Jamie Schaff said that an upcoming FCC vote on Thursday may be partly responsible for operators’ change of heart when it comes to expanded roaming agreements. Smaller operators are asking that the FCC mandatethat all operators be required to extend data roaming to smaller providers, and the FCC has shown an inclination to back their request.

“With the upcoming FCC vote, Sprint and Nextel have gotten on the smaller carriers’ side,” Schaff said. “We hope the FCC will mandate this for all of the carriers.”

SouthernLINC is a subsidiary of the Southern Company (NYSE:SO), a group of regional electrical utilities that serves SouthernLINC’s own footprint covering Alabama, Georgia, northwest Florida and southeast Mississippi. SouthernLINC’s network is built entirely off of Motorola’s (NYSE:MSI) iDEN technology, which also powers Sprint’s Nextel network. The key feature of iDEN is its ability to support carrier-class push-to-talk direct radio connection services, making it the focal point service for Sprint’s Nextel and Boost Mobile services as well as SouthernLINC’s own “So Easy” service plans.

Because SouthernLINC uses the same technology as the Nextel network, it can support inter-operator PTT connections (i.e., a SouthernLINC customer can push a PTT call to a Nextel customer and vice versa) a feature that few, if any, PTT solutions can offer. Now with nationwide roaming in place, SouthernLINC can offer a full-fledged and robust PTT service within and without its territory, a critical distinction for the types of customers PTT attracts, Schaff said. Enterprise workers, contractors and government employees often travel outside the SouthernLINC footprint. Before the deal went into place, these people simply lost access to work-critical PTT services, Schaff said.

The roaming deal also includes data roaming access of Sprint’s iDEN network, which can’t support the 3G or mobile broadband speeds that others are offering today over EV-DO, high-speed packet access (HSPA), WiMAX or long-term evolution. But the deal ensures customers don’t lose all access to the mobile Internet, BlackBerry e-mail and other data applications when they leave the SouthernLINC territory. Schaff said SouthernLINC is investigating future mobile broadband technologies to augment its data network, but hasn’t settled on a specific technology.

Sprint has said it is now in the process of shutting down its own iDEN network and plans to start transitioning its Nextel and Boost customers to the CDMA network after it develops a new IP push-to-talk service as part of its Network Vision modernization program (CP: Sprint lays out vague path to LTE). Sprint is targeting 2013 as the cut-off date for iDEN, allowing it to repurpose the network's 800 MHZ spectrum for a future mobile broadband technology. But Schaff said that SouthernLINC expects Sprint to keep large parts of the network running for several more years, gradually phasing it out rather than simply flipping off a switch.