PTT over IP vs traditional two-way radio

Most comparison pieces are written by whoever is selling you something. This one is for the person signing the hire renewal while wondering if there is another way.

Traditional radio still wins in places mobile data cannot reach. You survey the site, you know the footprint, latency is predictable when the network is engineered properly. For a fixed depot with the same channels year after year, that matters. Nobody is suggesting you rip out a well surveyed RF system that already works.

The pain is everything around it. Handsets cost. A new site means more terminals and another line on the invoice. Dispatch, if you have it, often lives in a different system that does not know who is on which talkgroup unless someone updates a whiteboard. Adding a GPS tracker to a legacy radio contract is usually a separate purchase, from a separate supplier, that talks to neither the radios nor whatever dispatch tool you already have.

Where PTT over IP fits

PTT over IP uses the phone in someone's pocket. Rollout is closer to install an app and pair devices than wait six weeks for programming. Talkgroups are software. Busy and idle status shows on a dashboard without ringing three people to ask if the channel is clear.

You also get map positions, job assignment, and audit logs in the same place. Bolting a GPS tracker onto a legacy radio contract rarely gives you that, and even when it does, it is rarely on the same screen as the voice channel.

Coverage follows mobile networks. Town centres and most suburban work are fine. Rural dead zones need testing on a real route before you commit. This is the honest limitation of PTT over IP, and anyone telling you otherwise is not being straight with you.

What actually changes operationally

The comparison is not just about cost per handset. It is about what a supervisor can see without leaving the depot. On radio alone, a supervisor knows who is talking. They do not know where anyone is unless someone calls it in, and they do not have a record of who was assigned what unless someone wrote it down. PTT over IP puts voice, live position, and job assignment on one screen, which changes how quickly a supervisor can answer "who is closest" or "did anyone attend that job yet."

Training overhead is smaller than people expect. Channel discipline transfers directly. Busy and idle status works the same way it would on a radio system. The new part is a dashboard, and most supervisors pick that up faster than they expect after a single shift.

A side by side view

A sensible way to decide

Walk a sample route your teams actually drive and note where data fails. If it holds up, run a two-user pilot on RevoNet for a fortnight. Ask supervisors one question: did the map change who they sent to a job? That answer tells you more than any spec sheet.

If coverage fails in critical corners, keep radio there and use PTT over IP where data works. Hybrid setups are normal while organisations transition. Plenty of teams run both systems side by side for a season rather than switching everything over on one date.

We get asked whether you can drop every radio on day one. Some customers do. Others run parallel for a season, often keeping radio as backup for the one part of a site with no signal. There is no universal rule, and anyone promising one has not walked your site.

Latency on a healthy connection should feel close to radio. Test on your networks, not a brochure. The gap between "should feel close" and "does feel close" is entirely down to your local coverage, which is exactly why a pilot matters more than a demo.

Common questions

Do I need to replace all my radios at once? No. Many teams run PTT over IP alongside existing radio, especially during a transition, and drop hired handsets once coverage and habits are proven on the new system.

What happens if someone loses signal mid-shift? The map shows their last known position as stale rather than pretending they are still live. That is a prompt to call, not an outage.

Can dedicated PoC radios still be used? Yes. Android PoC radios pair through the admin console the same way phones do, for teams that decide a handset is more practical than a phone in some environments. See our hardware page for what is available.

Is this only for teams with poor radio coverage? Not necessarily. Some teams switch for the dispatch map and job tracking as much as for cost, even where radio coverage was never the problem.

Dedicated PoC radios work through admin-approved pairing. The free plan covers two users with everything turned on, which is enough to run the route test above before you make a call either way.