How technology advancements, operational demands, and private networks are reshaping mission-critical push to talk
Papa. Tango. Tango.
You might know push- to-talk (PTT) communication from memorable lingo like this — which you likely saw on a TV show. But, more than anything, PTT’s legacy is about keeping workers connected all the time.
The manner in which hand-held communication devices serve organizations and their staff has dramatically changed. The days of ruggedized walkie-talkies and nothing more? Gone. Today’s push to talk (PTT) tools range from traditional-looking equipment to large-screened equipment looking more like ruggedized iPhones than anything else.
The PTT shift goes beyond the impressiveness of the device in your hand. The struggle for dozens of industries — from public safety and utilities to manufacturing, mining, and logistics — that rely on hand-held voice communication devices isn’t just how to keep up with digital transformation at the employee usage level. It’s also how to underpin all of the newest applications with a foundation of network connectivity that is manageable, built to expand, and meets today’s needs along with tomorrow’s.
Let's review how we arrived at this particular moment of mission-critical communications solutions before addressing what’s possible for PTT-reliant organizations today.
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Evolving capabilities: From PTT devices to mission-critical services
PTT has been around since the early 1900s. One-way mobile dispatch gave way to two-way radio. Around the 1950s, land mobile radio (LMR) emerged as first responder teams and utilities saw a need for dedicated radio systems.
Later on, dispatch systems emerged, too but one important commonality remained: Everything centered on voice calls.
For decades, voice communication was the backbone of operational coordination across many industries. The reliability of PTT prevented lots of potential operational issues — allowing teams to convey immediate needs and prevent catastrophic accidents.
And reliable voice comms still carry that weight. But so many complementary technologies have emerged — technologies that help workers make more informed decisions, and faster, while managing increasingly complex processes. Organizations need richer communication capabilities that extend beyond voice and into comprehensive mission-critical services, or MCX, such as:
- Live video streaming for incident response and inspections
- Real-time workforce and asset tracking using GPS
- File, image, and work-order sharing in the field
- Remote expert collaboration and digital workflow integration
- Worker safety, including man-down detection and dispatch alerting
Together, these MCX applications make a huge impact on public safety. And all of them required a shift away from traditional narrowband PTT systems.
Evolving network infrastructure: From outdated legacy infrastructure to scalable private 5G
For many years, PTT was built upon the steady performance of narrowband radio technologies such as TETRA and P25. The fully on-premises architecture of these solutions included base stations, repeaters, controllers, dispatch consoles and switches — ensuring the right voice data goes to the right people using traditional voice-only PTT devices.
These systems require extensive hardware set up in configurations that are very difficult and time-intensive to change. Further, legacy PTT systems are closed environments — without APIs to connect voice with other enterprise applications.
Traditional PTT systems are secure and reliable for low-bandwidth voice needs, but also are very rigid and expensive. Most importantly, legacy PTT doesn’t accommodate MCX for digitally transformed operations.
The shift to private 5G for PTT
The rise of digital applications that augment PTT made private 5G a logical upgrade in recent years. Moving from narrowband to broadband networks based on 4G LTE and 5G allows voice data to coexist with MCX applications.
Private 5G deployments are built to scale for the long-term — and organizations can choose from multiple architectural options designed to meet different needs.
When is over the top PTT the right fit?
Over-the-top (OTT) PTT applications emerged as an accessible solution that offer easy deployment and relatively low cost over public or private cellular. It puts communication services in virtualized environments that can easily be scaled. New features can be added via simple configuration, without overhauling infrastructure.
This cloud-based architecture is a strong option for organizations with basic use cases that don’t require a guaranteed level of performance, and that don’t fall under industry-specific security regulations.
OTT PTT goes beyond the voice-only communications of traditional PTT — supporting advanced applications but without priority or pre-emption, meaning the enterprise has limited ability to control network performance, security, or which devices receive preferential treatment. These solutions operate on a best-effort basis, meaning performance can be hindered by network congestion, outages, or routing issues. They also provide limited control over data security and infrastructure.
In other words, OTT PTT is not the right fit when an organization has applications and mission-critical communications solutions that are essential for worker safety.
Modern-day mission-critical comms
How do you know that an application is mission-critical? A practical definition: An application is mission-critical when losing access or quality of service isn’t an option. For public safety agencies, lost access puts lives at risk. For manufacturing plants, mines, or ports, lost access puts employee well-being, sustainability, and millions of dollars at stake.
In some industries and with mission-critical use cases, performance, security, compliance, and operational continuity must be guaranteed. Mission-critical push to talk (MC-PTT) systems — built upon bedrock private 5G — address these needs through features such as traffic prioritization and pre-emption, and consistent low latency.
With MC-PTT, the infrastructure and application is on premises — in the organization’s own data center — not in the cloud. The system is controlled by the in-house IT and/or OT teams. So are data flows and the user experience.
MC-PTT that’s built upon private 5G combines the best qualities of both legacy PTT and OTT PTT:
- The bandwidth and integration flexibility necessary to accommodate MCX applications, beyond simply comms
- The reliability and security of fully on-premises infrastructure, including priority and pre-emption
What’s next in MC-PTT and private 5G?
The evolution of mission-critical communications solutions is by no means over. Emerging capabilities such as artificial intelligence, real-time analytics, and advanced multimedia services will further expand the role and scope of PTT and MCX. Voice will remain an essential component, but it will increasingly be part of a broader ecosystem that supports intelligent, connected operations.
As organizations continue their digital transformation, they need their connectivity to keep up with that pace. They need a network that is open, not closed, to a wide range of integrations. Ideally they should also have a network that supports a wide variety of digital transformation projects, beyond PTT — projects such as IoT, automation, and other connected worker applications.
They need to choose a private 5G network that meets the unique performance, security, and interoperability requirements of mission- and business-critical operations.
Over and out.
