Kodiak licenses PTT technology to Sony Ericsson

Kodiak Networks today said it has entered into an agreement with Sony Ericsson to license its Push-to-Talk (PTT) technology to the handset vendor and jointly market GSM PTT products.

Sony Ericsson is added to a growing list of handset, software and infrastructure makers that are licensing Kodiak’s core technology, which brings PTT and other push communications features to the network in advance of the Push-to-Talk over Cellular (PoC) standard.

Kodiak has signed handset deals with Samsung, LG Electronics and Kyocera in Asia as well as European manufacturers Alcatel and Sagem. OS developers PalmSource and Symbian have begun licensing Kodiak’s client software and Kodiak has developed a Java card with Sun Microsystems that allows carriers to port PTT into any Java-enabled handset.

So far Kodiak has landed smaller carrier deals in the U.S. It’s Real Time Exchange server is powering the PTT service of Alltel and will be the PTT solution behind Amp’d Mobile’s launch next year. Its big win, however, is with Orange, which has rolled out Kodiak’s service to numerous European markets. Meanwhile, the larger carriers in the U.S. are sticking with incumbent vendor Motorola for their limited PTT rollouts. Motorola supplied the first PTT system to Nextel over its iDEN network, and acquired Winphoria, which supplied the PTT technology power both Sprint and Verizon Wireless’s service.