I use to work for NEXTEL
I was there during Nextels inception. I remember 3:1, and then going 6: 1 compression for dispatch. Although Zello uses voice over IP, Nextel used an actual time slot on a T1 connection. I remember merging with sprint in 2005, and they (sprint) tried to come up with a PTT dispatch. It too was voice over IP. Its latency was not as bad as Zello, but never matched, nor came close to NEXTELs dispatch PTT. I have seen Zello latency pretty high (1124ms), and didnt think anything of it. Its free!!!
I didnt realize how well we had it, until it was gone... meaning we shut down the NEXTEL network across the nation in 2013. What took 13 years to build from the ground up, took sprint only 13 hours to shut down completely. Sad.
Just this morning, I could hear my brother talking to his coworkers on Zello. I am not in their group, and my Zello application was turned off, and I was logged out of Zello. This should not have happened. I should never have heard the conversation my brother was having with his coworkers. I was at home, but could have been anywhere, and had i been on a special assignment, this would have compromised my position. Sad.
I have since removed zello as of 30 minutes ago.
ez2curanut about
Zello Walkie Talkie, v3.41