Seattle, Washington, USA – April 14, 2011 – Twisted Pair Solutions, a recognized leader in critical communication applications for secure, real-time collaboration anywhere on any device, has launched WAVE Connections, a cloud-based voice communications service that turns smartphones into network independent push-to-talk (PTT) handsets.
 
For the first time transportation, security, retail, utilities, energy, healthcare and hospitality workers can instantly connect and converse with other individuals or groups of users on the service, over any carrier data or Wi-Fi network. This makes WAVE Connections an ideal business-productivity tool, connecting mobile workers and allowing instant communications between individuals and groups in the office, in the field or at home.

“WAVE Connections is very different from other push-to-talk services in that we offer highly secure, low-latency, real-time push-talk across any data network rather than other higher-latency push-and-wait services,” said Tom Guthrie, President and CEO of Twisted Pair. “Perhaps more importantly, WAVE Connections is built on the industry’s most successful critical communications platform that has been extensively deployed in combat by the U.S. military and continues to expand its role in government and commercial communications worldwide.”

Commercial PTT services from wireless providers have never achieved the success that the industry once hoped for, primarily because lengthy call set-up times, limited handset options and additional networks charges proved unacceptable in all but niche and non-critical applications.  But this is changing. In recent years the industry has invested billions of dollars to improve its wireless data infrastructure and round trip times across most networks are now consistently sub-second, allowing for high-quality, low-latency PTT conversation.  Furthermore, the recent arrival of significantly more capable smartphone devices with the ability to access secure applications over a data or Wi-Fi has made PTT a much more attractive service.

As a cloud service, WAVE Connections is accessible anywhere in the world. New users sign-up for an account, create their own private Talk Group, and then invite others to join.  Once invited, Talk Group members complete their part of the registration process and install the WAVE Connections smartphone application. PTT capability is then immediately available to all members of the Talk Group, regardless of individual user’s device or wireless provider.
 
“As well as providing true network independent PTT capability for users, WAVE Connections presents a window into the more extensive and unique capabilities that our WAVE platform offers“, adds Guthrie.  “Today many of our defense, government and commercial customers want to augment or even replace two-way radio handsets with smartphones that use applications, such as our Mobile Communicator, to provide critical communications over private or public IP networks.” 
   
WAVE Connections is a free service and users can register online for an account at WAVEConnections.com. The registration process is extremely straightforward and a new account can be active with just a few minutes. WAVE Connections is currently able to support select BlackBerry® and Windows Mobile smartphones. Android devices will be supported later in 2011, followed by support for Windows 7 and iPhone.