The short answer
Choose PoC when your people move beyond one site; choose conventional radio when they don't, or when you can't depend on mobile networks. A courier fleet spread across three counties has no realistic conventional option short of leased repeater networks. A single warehouse with steel racking and zero appetite for monthly bills is still a textbook conventional radio job.
Side by side
| PTT over Cellular | Conventional two-way radio | |
|---|---|---|
| Range | Anywhere with 4G/5G/Wi-Fi — effectively national | 0.5–2 km handheld-to-handheld typical; miles with repeaters |
| Licence | None required | Licence-free (PMR446, 500 mW) or Ofcom business licence from £75/5 yrs |
| Upfront cost | £100–£300 per handset | £25 (basic PMR446) to £600+ (digital licensed) per handset |
| Ongoing cost | £8–£15 per radio/month | £0 after purchase (plus licence renewal if licensed) |
| Infrastructure | None | Repeaters needed for wide-area or difficult buildings |
| Depends on | Mobile network availability | Nothing external — radios talk directly to each other |
| Extras | GPS, lone worker, messaging, dispatch software as standard | Available on digital (DMR) systems, usually at extra cost |
Five-year cost, honestly worked
Take a ten-radio team. A decent PoC setup runs roughly £1,500–£2,500 in handsets plus £10/radio/month — about £7,500–£8,500 over five years. A licensed conventional system with comparable digital handsets is £3,000–£5,000 upfront plus a £75 licence — £3,000–£5,000 over five years, provided one site's coverage is enough. Conventional wins the pure arithmetic when it can do the job at all; the moment you need coverage beyond what direct radio reaches, repeater hardware, siting and maintenance erase the difference — and PoC's subscription starts looking cheap for what it delivers.
The reliability question
This is the one place conventional radio is still structurally superior: two handsets talking directly need nothing else to be working. No network, no data centre, no SIM. That's why safety-critical single-site environments — plant rooms, quarries, below-ground work — often keep conventional radio regardless of cost. PoC's dependence on the mobile networks is mitigated in practice by multi-network SIMs that roam across all UK operators, and by Wi-Fi fallback indoors — but mitigation isn't elimination. If communications must survive a total network outage, conventional (or a hybrid fleet) is the responsible choice.
Where each one wins
PoC wins
Multi-site operations · vehicle fleets · security patrols across town · events companies touring venues · anyone who has ever said "the radios don't reach".
Conventional wins
Single sites with no monthly-cost appetite · basements and remote areas with poor mobile signal · safety-critical comms that must work when networks don't.
Hybrid is real
Plenty of fleets mix both: conventional on-site, PoC for supervisors and drivers. Some platforms bridge the two so everyone shares talk groups.
Wondering how PoC compares with the £25 licence-free handsets from the high street instead? That comparison — consumer walkie-talkies vs network radio — is covered well at walkie-talkies.net.
Next: How PoC networks actually work — SIMs, platforms and coverage →