Kodiak Networks, the leading provider of advanced wireless systems and Orange, one of the world’s largest mobile communications companies, today announced that Kodiak is powering Orange’s Talk Now service, the first advanced push-to-talk over GSM system in Europe.
Commercial availability of the Talk Now service in the UK follows a nine-month trial with key Pan European enterprise and business customers including NHS Lothian in the UK.
Today, Talk Now handsets become available to Orange business customers in the UK through the Orange Business Solutions channel. The service will be available in Orange retail stores later in the year. Talk Now uses a suite of Kodiak Advanced Voice Services that enable faster voice calls to individuals and groups, instant conference calling and availability updates of coworkers, customers, suppliers, friends and family in seconds.
The Orange Talk Now service is powered by Kodiak’s Real-Time Exchange (RTX) System, which enables an entirely new category of Advanced Voice Services, including PTT, with offerings that include:
Instant Availability – Ability to see who’s available to receive a call
Instant Calling – Real-time “Push to Talk” calling
Instant Conferencing – Real-time conferencing with members of a group
Instant Contact Management – Create contact and group distribution lists directly on the handset
Five handset manufacturers have been announced by Orange to provide the Talk Now service including Alcatel, LG, Nokia, PalmOne and Sagem. These advanced voice services will be offered to customers through a variety of attractive pricing plans designed to meet different usage requirements.
Frank Bowman, Vice President of Advanced Services Delivery for the Orange Group stated, “Kodiak were able to offer us the initial functionality we required to develop and commercially launch Talk Now in the right time frame. They mobilized themselves very quickly and offered a robust technological solution that answered an identified customer need.”
Craig Farrill, CEO of Kodiak Networks added, “Orange’s Kodiak-powered Talk Now services offer customers advanced voice feature functionality that is unprecedented in Europe. In addition to instant calling, business users, consumers and the service industry will benefit from these premium services including instant availability, instant conferencing, and contact and group management directly from the handset.”
In addition to the UK, Orange’s Talk Now service is due to launch this calendar year in France, then followed by Orange’s operations in Switzerland, the Caribbean, Jordan (Mobilecom), the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Belgium (Mobistar) and the Dominican Republic.