T-Mobile US teamed with Motorola Solutions to roll out a new push-to-talk (PTT) service targeted at first responders, government agencies and businesses.

The operator stated its Mission Critical Push-to-Talk (MCPTT) is integrated with the Motorola Solutions’ Critical Connect service to provide agencies and businesses with redundancy, resiliency and end-to-end encryption. It also enables secure messaging, emergency alerts, ambient listening and role-based management services.

T-Mobile stated the service is designed for use on rugged devices in the field, but it also works as an app on smartphones and tablets.

The operator claimed administrators can boot up the service within hours instead of days to provision hundreds of user profiles with the required permissions and access to key talk groups.

It also features an “always-on wireless priority service” (WSP) to establish preferred connections for push-to-talk and data traffic nationwide on the operator’s 5G network. T-Mobile noted WSP “provides priority access and pre-emption for eligible companies and first responder agencies when networks are temporarily overloaded or impaired”.

The service can also be used with land mobile radio systems (LMR), which the operator noted extends PTT capabilities to users without radios or that travel outside of LMR coverage areas.

T-Mobile noted MCPTT, which will be available in April, offers video streaming as well as data services such as location-sharing in the field so first responders or employees can provide real-time updates on crucial activities.

T-Mobile rivals AT&T and Verizon also offer PTT services.