Orange to launch UK's first teen and business walkie-talkie service

Orange has launched the first commercial version of walkie-talkie mobile technology, push-to-talk over cellular (PoC), in the UK.

The PoC service, called TalkNow, has been trialled with businesses for nine months and has been launched across Europe today. Currently, Orange's POC tariff is available for corporate business customers but consumers and SMEs will be able to get their hands on the technology later in the year.

PoC has already proven popular in the US with both businesses and teenage consumers. PoC essentially turns mobiles into walkie-talkies, with a kind of short instant messaging voice service. Users can send short voice messages to single 'buddies' or conference in a group of up to 10.

Orange will be offering PoC messages as bundles or on a pay-as-you-go basis. For a short while, the operator is selling the POC calls at the same price as standard voice calls.

It also plans to take the technology to France first, then Belgium, the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic, Jordan, Romania and Switzerland over the next few months. An Orange spokeswoman said that when the overseas services are launched, users will be able to conduct international PoC calls.

Anyone wanting to use the technology will need a new handset though. Orange's portfolio will include phones from Alcatel, LG, Nokia, PalmOne and Sagem. However, at launch, the service will only be available on the Treo 600.