AI Cellular Integration
Run your fleet on push-to-talk over cellular LTE? Haloid brings the same AI voice capability to your talkgroups - live translation, spoken lookups, and virtual dispatch - on the devices your people already carry. Nationwide coverage, no towers of your own.
What this is
Push-to-talk over cellular has become the primary communications system for many organizations, and for good reason. It covers wherever the carrier covers, it runs on devices people already carry, and there is no infrastructure of your own to build or maintain.
What it has not had until now is AI. Haloid is building the same integration layer we demonstrated on land mobile radio to run on cellular push-to-talk talkgroups: someone keys up, asks a question, and gets a spoken answer back on the talkgroup. Translation, voice lookups, virtual dispatch, and logging all work the same way.
If you also run land mobile radio, the AI can serve both at once. If you don't, none of this depends on it.
What we are building toward
Carrier push-to-talk
The major U.S. carriers run their push-to-talk services often on a common underlying platform, Kodiak. Talkgroups and devices on those services are our first target, because supporting the platform reaches all of them instead of one carrier at a time.
We already sell and support Motorola WAVE and carrier PTT devices, so this is the equipment we know best.
Broadband PTT applications
Third-party push-to-talk apps running on standard smartphones and rugged handsets. Widely used, cheap to deploy, and already in the hands of plenty of crews who will never carry a radio.
Mixed fleets
A phone user and a LMR radio user on the same conversation, with the AI serving both. Bridging those two networks is something we already do today, so it's an extension of proven ground.
Why cellular changes the coverage question
Got crews spread across a region, a state, or the whole country? Radio coverage stops where your repeater coverage stops. Carrier push-to-talk goes wherever the carrier or WiFi goes, and you don't build or maintain a single tower.
For a lot of organizations, that's the difference between putting AI in front of a few crews and putting it in front of everyone on the payroll.
It's worth saying the other half out loud. Cellular depends on the carrier, and we've written about the PoC radios that dropped offline when a major cloud provider went down. That's a real consideration, and it's one reason plenty of our customers keep a LMR radio system running alongside their cellular fleet.
Operating outside the United States? Carrier push-to-talk services vary by country and operator, so we scope those one at a time - and they also need to be compliant with U.S. export law.
Devices
We already sell and support the hardware side of this today. Our Haloid Bridge radio-over-cellular line covers voice, data, and video devices - walkie talkies, smartphones, tablets, hotspots, and wearables - from Sonim, Apple, Samsung, Siyata, and Motorola, including the Motorola WAVE:
- Rugged push-to-talk handsets built for field use
- Carrier PTT running on standard smartphones
- Radio-form-factor devices that operate over cellular
- Vehicle kits with speaker microphones and mounts
Buying radio devices as part of this? We can source new radio equipment from most manufacturers and carriers, and offer HaloidFLEX financing. For complex deployments we install anywhere in the United States, and we can outfit your vehicles too.
Tell us what you run
Have questions? Need a custom quote? Tell us what you run, how many users you have, and what you want the AI to do. One of our sales engineers will come back to you with scope and pricing.
Common questions
Our fleet is outside the United States. Does this apply to us?
Yes, with one caveat worth knowing early. Our first target is the platform the major US carriers share, because supporting it reaches all of them at once. Overseas, carrier push-to-talk is built differently from operator to operator, so we scope each one on its own rather than promising blanket support.
Broadband push-to-talk apps travel better, since they run over ordinary data rather than a carrier's own service. Tell us the country, the carrier, and what your people actually carry.
Can I get this today?
Not yet. Cellular is in active development and we're scoping deployments now. Tell us what you run and what you want the AI to do, and we'll give you a straight answer on timing for your specific setup. Customers who scope early help set the build order.
Do I have to choose between radios and phones?
No. Plenty of organizations run both, and the AI layer is designed to sit above either one. A phone user and a radio user can share the same conversation with the AI serving both.
Which carriers will this work with?
The major U.S. carriers build their push-to-talk services on a shared Motorola platform, which is why we're targeting the platform rather than individual carriers. We'll confirm your specific service during scoping.
Will my users need a new app?
Our design goal is no. Your users keep the push-to-talk app or device they already have, and the AI simply appears as another participant on the talkgroup.
What about areas with no cell coverage?
Cellular push-to-talk needs carrier coverage. Land mobile radio doesn't. That's the main reason organizations keep both, and it's why bridging the two beats replacing one with the other.
Does the AI behave differently on cellular?
No. Translation, dispatch, logging, and lookups all work the same way. What differs is the path onto the talkgroup and the latency, and we measure both on your actual service instead of quoting them off a spec sheet.