The company, which is headquartered in Chicago and serves 25 states, said it's SpeedTalk service will provide walkie-talkie service between two individuals or groups of as many as 20 people.
"A lot of calls are made just to relay simple pieces of information -- a date or time, a location, a name or a number," Alan D. Ferber, the company's vice president of marketing and sales, said in a statement. "SpeedTalk provides all the value of voice with the speed of instant messaging, and you can even speak to entire groups instantly."
The service will be available via phones from Kyocera and LG and will be available on plans starting at $49.95 a month for 1000 minutes, the company said.