Is it a “Two Way Radio”?
Is the phrase “Two Way Radio” an American thing, or is this term also popular in other countries to describe this type of equipment?
The term “two way radio” is very commonly used on search engines such as Google, an indication of its popularity.
Since the explosion of cellular phones we have seen the rising popularity of the the term “Wireless”.
What do YOU call a push-to-talk type of radio device?
2 Responses to “Is it a “Two Way Radio”?”
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February 7th, 2005 at 10:09 am
This is a question I would also like to know, the term “Two Way Radio” does sound very American and if the technology does become popular over here in the UK will it be called the same thing.
Often when things cross over the pond from the US to the UK, the name changes. I think if you asked most people in the UK what is a two way radio they would probably think it was some kind of CB radio. Personally I did not know what a “two way radio” was until a few weeks ago when I started conducting some research into this market trying to predict the possibility of the technology coming to the UK and if so what the impact will be on SMS text messaging. The UK mobile phone market currently has one of the largest SMS usages in the world, where as in the US SMS text messaging is nowhere near as big. I believe that two way radio may never reach its full potential in the UK because so many are already happy with SMS, the old “if its not broke don’t fix it” kind of thing. SMS text messaging in the UK has really become quite a culture. But saying this, it could be the biggest trend since the launch of the first camera phone. Trying to predict this market is a very difficult job.
Coming back to the original question, I would hazard a guess that “two way radio” could be called something like “two way mobile” or just simply “voice messeging”.
February 7th, 2005 at 2:14 pm
Here in the U.S., when someone speaks of “Two Way radio” they are usually referring to the old radios like the police and taxis have been using for 50 years.
Most people here consider the newer wireless phones with push-to-talk capabilities as being “cell phones.”