MOTO Talk is a feature on some Motorola iDEN cellular phone handsets which allows users to make short-range 'push-to-talk' calls to other such handsets without being on the iDEN network. This feature goes by different names on iDEN service providers. In the US, Nextel called it 'DirectTalk' and included it as a free service on most new models of Motorola handsets. Boost Mobile disabled the function via handset software settings. SouthernLINC calls it LINCaround and ships handsets with the feature disabled. It can be enabled after paying an activation fee of $20. In Canada, TELUS calls it "Mike's Talk-Around."
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company founded on September 25, 1928, based in Schaumburg, Illinois. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company was divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011. Motorola Solutions is generally considered to be the direct successor to Motorola, as the reorganization was structured with Motorola Mobility being spun off. Motorola Mobility was sold to Google in 2012, and acquired by Lenovo in 2014.
Push-to-talk (PTT), also known as press-to-transmit, is a method of having conversations or talking on half-duplex communication lines, including two-way radio, using a momentary button to switch from voice reception mode to transmit mode.
It is the same system as used with Motorola's stand-alone DTR-series walkie-talkies, but DTR handsets and iDEN handsets set to MOTO Talk are not able to communicate with each other due to software settings. Motorola Solutions Inc sells DTR series two-ways radios that carry this peer to peer protocol. It can be used for voice communication, as well as SMS (short message services) between devices over more than 8 miles in flat terrain conditions.
MOTO Talk is not the same as the on-network 'DirectConnect' push-to-talk service. Signals are sent directly from one handset to another, rather than using the cellular network as DirectConnect does. MOTO Talk uses the 900 MHz ISM band rather than the frequencies allocated for iDEN cellular phone service, usually in the 800 MHz cellular band in the US and Canada.
The industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands are radio bands reserved internationally for the use of radio frequency (RF) energy for industrial, scientific and medical purposes other than telecommunications. Examples of applications in these bands include radio-frequency process heating, microwave ovens, and medical diathermy machines. The powerful emissions of these devices can create electromagnetic interference and disrupt radio communication using the same frequency, so these devices were limited to certain bands of frequencies. In general, communications equipment operating in these bands must tolerate any interference generated by ISM applications, and users have no regulatory protection from ISM device operation.
There are ten "channels" or "hop sets" or "frequency hop groups" available in MOTO Talk, and fifteen privacy codes per channel. In addition, "private calls" can be placed using the phone number assigned to the handset being called.
The effective range can be in excess of 8 miles in flat terrain, but the frequencies used are line-of-sight and are blocked by structures and vegetation. Practical ranges are usually 1 to 2 miles.
The MOTO Talk service is slightly similar to FRS (Family Radio Service) walkie-talkies but uses digital rather than analog signals, operates on the 900 MHz ISM band rather than the 462 MHz frequencies allocated to FRS, and uses frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology rather than single fixed frequencies for each channel.
The Family Radio Service (FRS) is an improved walkie-talkie radio system authorized in the United States since 1996. This personal radio service uses channelized frequencies around 462 and 467 MHz in the ultra high frequency (UHF) band. It does not suffer the interference effects found on citizens' band (CB) at 27 MHz, or the 49 MHz band also used by cordless telephones, toys, and baby monitors. FRS uses frequency modulation (FM) instead of amplitude modulation (AM). Since the UHF band has different radio propagation characteristics, short-range use of FRS may be more predictable than the more powerful license-free radios operating in the HF CB band.
On each phone the MOTO Talk entry varies between 'MotoTalk' and 'DirecTalk' depending on the age of the phone and the branded carrier (Boost Mobile or Nextel). Otherwise, they are the identical function with a different name. Boost Mobile phones are not enabled for MOTO Talk use by default but can enabled by modifying the codeplug of the device (The Motorola i415 has the codeplug entry but not the needed transceiver hardware. As of 2011, it is the only device from Boost on the iDEN network that cannot use MOTO Talk.)
The off network feature on the iDEN phones work for up to a six-mile radius and will communicate with all other iDEN phones in the area on the same channel and code access number.
The off network walkie talkie feature has a total of 10 channels on newer phones and within those 10 channels, the phones can handle 15 separate group codes. This means there can be 15 conversations operating on each of the 10 channels within any single 6 miles radius. As with FRS and GMRS radios, the 15 group codes work to block calls that are not on the same code. The group codes do not secure your conversation. Only one person can talk on a code at a time. The phone can listen to all activity on a channel, but cannot transmit when in this "receive-all" mode. It uses FHSS technology on the 900 MHz ISM band as an unlicensed transmitter.
Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) is a method of transmitting radio signals by rapidly switching a carrier among many frequency channels, using a pseudorandom sequence known to both transmitter and receiver. It is used as a multiple access method in the code division multiple access (CDMA) scheme frequency-hopping code division multiple access (FH-CDMA).
They use similar commercial radio transmission systems for DTR Digital series businesses but they are not compatible with each other, because they are configured differently by software. (Deliberately made by Motorola) In the DTMT Mode they transmit with 600mw and in the band ISM of 900 MHz (902-907, 915-928) they use the type of digital modulation 8-level FSK 900 MHz ISM FHSS.
In 10 channels and 15 codes (can be made safer using the radio's own ID) Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum is a spread spectrum modulation technique in which the signal is emitted Over a series of seemingly random radio frequencies, jumping from frequency to frequency synchronously with the transmitter. Unauthorized receivers will hear an unintelligible signal. If you try to intercept the signal, you would only get it for a few moments and hear data. A broad spectrum transmission offers 3 main advantages:
1. Signals in spread spectrum are highly resistant to noise and interference.
2. Signals in spread spectrum are difficult to intercept. A transmission of this type sounds as a short-lived noise, or as an increase in noise at any receiver, except for the one using the sequence that was used by the transmitter. Broadcast spectrum transmissions can share a frequency band with many types of conventional transmissions with minimal interference.
3. The signals can not be interfered in a conventional manner (blocking the TX / RX frequency). More sophisticated equipment such as Jamming equipment that interferes with the entire frequency band must be used.
Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) was an analog mobile phone system standard developed by Bell Labs, and officially introduced in the Americas on October 13, 1983, Israel in 1986, Australia in 1987, Singapore in 1988, and Pakistan in 1990. It was the primary analog mobile phone system in North America through the 1980s and into the 2000s. As of February 18, 2008, carriers in the United States were no longer required to support AMPS and companies such as AT&T and Verizon Communications have discontinued this service permanently. AMPS was discontinued in Australia in September 2000, in Pakistan by October 2004,, in Israel by January 2010, and Brazil by 2010.
The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP, UMTS is a component of the International Telecommunications Union IMT-2000 standard set and compares with the CDMA2000 standard set for networks based on the competing cdmaOne technology. UMTS uses wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency and bandwidth to mobile network operators.
A communication channel or simply channel refers either to a physical transmission medium such as a wire, or to a logical connection over a multiplexed medium such as a radio channel in telecommunications and computer networking. A channel is used to convey an information signal, for example a digital bit stream, from one or several senders to one or several receivers. A channel has a certain capacity for transmitting information, often measured by its bandwidth in Hz or its data rate in bits per second.
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter. Radio waves with frequencies above the UHF band fall into the super-high frequency (SHF) or microwave frequency range. Lower frequency signals fall into the VHF or lower bands. UHF radio waves propagate mainly by line of sight; they are blocked by hills and large buildings although the transmission through building walls is strong enough for indoor reception. They are used for television broadcasting, cell phones, satellite communication including GPS, personal radio services including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, walkie-talkies, cordless phones, and numerous other applications.
Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) is a mobile telecommunications technology, developed by Motorola, which provides its users the benefits of a trunked radio and a cellular telephone. It was called the first mobile social network by many technology industry analysts. iDEN places more users in a given spectral space, compared to analog cellular and two-way radio systems, by using speech compression and time division multiple access (TDMA).
A walkie-talkie is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald L. Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, and engineering teams at Motorola. First used for infantry, similar designs were created for field artillery and tank units, and after the war, walkie-talkies spread to public safety and eventually commercial and jobsite work.
A cordless telephone or portable telephone is a telephone in which the handset is portable and communicates with the body of the phone by radio, instead of being attached by a cord. The base station is connected to the telephone network through a telephone line as a corded telephone is, and also serves as a charger to charge the handset's batteries. The range is limited, usually to the same building or some short distance from the base station.
The Improved Mobile Telephone Service (IMTS) was a pre-cellular VHF/UHF radio system that links to the PSTN. IMTS was the radiotelephone equivalent of land dial phone service. It was introduced in 1964 as a replacement to Mobile Telephone Service or MTS and improved on most MTS systems by offering direct-dial rather than connections through a live operator.
The 33-centimeter or 900 MHz band is a portion of the UHF radio spectrum internationally allocated to amateur radio on a secondary basis. It ranges from 902 to 928 MHz and is unique to ITU Region 2. It is primarily used for very local communications as opposed to bands lower in frequency. However, very high antennas with high gain have shown 33 centimeters can provide good long range communications almost equal to systems on lower frequencies such as the 70 centimeter band. The band is also used by industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) equipment, as well as low powered unlicensed devices. Amateur stations must accept harmful interference caused by ISM users but may receive protection from unlicensed devices.
GSM frequency bands or frequency ranges are the cellular frequencies designated by the ITU for the operation of GSM mobile phones and other mobile devices.
Spectral efficiency, spectrum efficiency or bandwidth efficiency refers to the information rate that can be transmitted over a given bandwidth in a specific communication system. It is a measure of how efficiently a limited frequency spectrum is utilized by the physical layer protocol, and sometimes by the media access control.
ReadyLink was a "walkie-talkie" service, which used Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), offered by the Sprint Nextel Corporation, in an effort to compete with then-separate Nextel Communications. It was necessary to have a Sanyo or a Samsung ReadyLink capable phone and a matching service-plan in order to use this feature. ReadyLink sought to mimic the forerunning "MOTO Talk"/Nextel walkie-talkie service, except that ReadyLink was created to operate on the Sprint CDMA network.
It was discontinued shortly after the Sprint PCS acquisition of Nextel Communications.
The Motorola i870 is a clam-style cellular telephone designed for use with iDEN Networks. It was released for SouthernLINC networks in mid-October 2005, and for Nextel on October 31, 2005 as a replacement for the i860. A variation of this phone, the i875, was released for Boost Mobile as a replacement for the i860 Tattoo.
PowerSource, or "hybrid" phones, are specialized cellular devices used by customers of the American telecommunications company Sprint-Nextel. They are distinct from other mobile phones in that they make use of two cellular networks instead of a single one.
The Motorola i886 is the first ever qwerty slider style cellular telephone designed for use with iDEN Networks. It was released for Nextel on January 9, 2011.
Radio is the technology of signalling or communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connected to an antenna which radiates the waves, and received by a radio receiver connected to another antenna. Radio is very widely used in modern technology, in radio communication, radar, radio navigation, remote control, remote sensing and other applications. In radio communication, used in radio and television broadcasting, cell phones, two-way radios, wireless networking and satellite communication among numerous other uses, radio waves are used to carry information across space from a transmitter to a receiver, by modulating the radio signal in the transmitter. In radar, used to locate and track objects like aircraft, ships, spacecraft and missiles, a beam of radio waves emitted by a radar transmitter reflects off the target object, and the reflected waves reveal the object's location. In radio navigation systems such as GPS and VOR, a mobile receiver receives radio signals from navigational radio beacons whose position is known, and by precisely measuring the arrival time of the radio waves the receiver can calculate its position on Earth. In wireless remote control devices like drones, garage door openers, and keyless entry systems, radio signals transmitted from a controller device control the actions of a remote device.
Nextel Communications, Inc. was a wireless service operator that merged with and continues to exist as a wholly owned subsidiary of Sprint Corporation. Nextel in Brazil, and formerly in Argentina, Chile, Peru, the Philippines, and Mexico, is part of NII Holdings, a stand-alone, publicly traded company that is not owned by Sprint Corporation.
The Motorola i920/i930 is Motorola's first wave of iDEN Protocol-based smartphones.
Cellular frequencies are the sets of frequency ranges within the ultra high frequency band that have been assigned for cellular-compatible mobile devices, such as mobile phones, to connect to cellular networks. Most mobile networks worldwide use portions of the radio frequency spectrum, allocated to the mobile service, for the transmission and reception of their signals. The particular bands may also be shared with other radiocommunication services, e.g. broadcasting service, and fixed service operation.
