PTT is a relic of the time when people were regularly concerned with minute overages. Whatever the technology is, phone companies don’t feel the need to charge for it by the push, so it’s unlimited. There are also no roaming or long-distance charges, but many cell phone deals have obviated these benefits as well.

Speakerphone use for PTT used to be mandatory, but those who use it this way in public now are just being rude. You can use it like a regular phone on most models, if you can manage pushing the button while it’s next to your face.

PTT (and Nextel generally) are much more popular in the south for some reason. They are especially popular among businesses that would otherwise spend thousands on walkie-talkies for large-scale coordination purposes: construction workers, surveyors, and the like.

Some find the walkie-talkie more useful for short conversations (“Where are you?” “Five minutes away,”) because the format usually eliminates the exchange of pleasantries, but this is a social phantom: if you have the minutes, a cell-phone conversation can be just as curt and will take less time.

This email contains everything I learned working for FEMA in Florida last year.