DC (TRANSMISSION)

The term DC - when it is used in terms of wireless transmission, stands for "Direct Connect".  While several services offer a version of direct connect, it was Nextel who had made the practice popular and is still the master at it in terms of speed and simplicity.

Direct Connect allows a customer to contact another user on the same service who also has direct connect capability.  The conversation does not go through the normal long process of a phone call and allows conversation almost immediately. As for speed of information transfer, some statistics show that the average DC call is about one fifth the time of a normal wireless call, so it is quite efficient.

DC uses a single channel for transmission and receive, therefore the users mush push to talk when the other is not speaking in order to transmit.  Mostly due to TV ads, there is a belief among some that DC always must use a speaker and therefore can be annoying.  Not so.  DC via Nextel also allows one to quietly alert another user of a DC connection request, and also allows the standard phone speaker and microphone in order to be less bothersome to those people surrounding us.  It is quite a nice feature for those wanting rapid and good communications.