Cingular is finally following in the footsteps of Nextel. They have announced the launch of their new Push-To-Talk (PTT) service, which will be much like the Nextel iDEN network. It does offer a few nice twists to what we have seen from Nextel, though.

Cingular has made it easier to make group calls. There is a Buddy List which allows you to keep your friends in one place. Handily, it lets you see if the other person is available before you try to make a PTT call to them. They have also made it easy to switch over from PTT to the cell network.

There are two new handsets that will be available to use the new service. The LG F7200 is available now and it will be joined by the Samsung D357 soon.

You can have unlimited PTT minutes for $9.99 per month, or you can hook up all the lines in your family plan for $19.99 a month.