Push-to-Talk From Florida to Utah No License Required

Radioddity sent over their new TomoLink, and this one is a little different from what usually gets covered here. It is not a ham radio. It is a POC radio, which stands for push-to-talk over cellular. Instead of transmitting over traditional frequencies like your Baofeng does, it uses the 4G LTE network to carry the signal. And honestly, for the right use case, this thing makes a lot of sense.

The BrokenSignal audience skews toward licensed operators, so let's get that part out of the way right at the top: this is not a ham radio product. You do not need a license to operate it, and it does not care what band plan you know. It is a tool for teams that need to communicate across distances that kill traditional radio. If that describes a problem you actually have, keep reading.

What Is a POC Radio?

A traditional radio, whether it is a Baofeng, a business-band handheld, or a repeater-linked system, is limited by physics. Power output, antenna height, and line of sight all determine how far the signal goes. A typical handheld on flat terrain might get you one to three miles. Add a repeater and you stretch that out, but you are still dependent on infrastructure with a fixed coverage footprint.

A POC radio sidesteps all of that by routing voice communications through the cellular data network instead of over the air. Think of it as a walkie-talkie that uses cell towers as its repeater infrastructure. As long as both radios have cell coverage, they can communicate. It does not matter if one is in Florida and one is in Utah. Distance becomes irrelevant. The only hard limit is whether there is a signal on the cellular side.

The TomoLink operates on both 2G and 4G LTE networks. The 4G path is where you get clean audio and reliable latency. The 2G fallback keeps it connected in areas where LTE coverage drops off, though voice quality will reflect that. That is a practical detail worth knowing if you are deploying these in areas where LTE can be spotty.

Who Actually Needs This

This is not a ham radio product and it is not an emergency communications tool. But if you are running a construction company with crews spread across multiple job sites, managing a security team patrolling across a city, coordinating a logistics fleet across state lines, or just trying to keep a family group connected on a cross-country road trip, this is exactly what you are looking for.

The TomoLink is purpose-built for teams that need push-to-talk simplicity without the range restrictions of traditional radio. No repeater infrastructure to build out, no frequency coordination, no license exam. Radioddity specifically calls out construction and security on the product page, and that tracks: those are two industries that need wide-area PTT the most and are most likely to run into the licensing headache with business-band radios.

The 200-member group capacity is also worth calling out here. Most small business deployments are not going to push that limit, but for larger organizations coordinating dozens of people across multiple locations, the headroom matters. A ten-radio job site and a hundred-person logistics operation both fit within the same platform.

$149.99 for Two Radios and Three Years of Service

One thing Radioddity got right here is the pricing model. A SIM card and 3-year data plan are included in the box. Radioddity specifies approximately 800MB per month of data capacity, which is more than sufficient for voice PTT traffic. No monthly fees, no subscription portal to navigate, no additional cost on top of the hardware for three years.

After the three years are up, you have real options. You can renew through Radioddity, or you can insert a compatible Nano SIM from AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile and keep going. That carrier flexibility matters, because you are not permanently locked into a proprietary data plan. If Radioddity's renewal pricing ever stops being competitive, you have an exit.

Compare that to the alternatives. Other POC solutions typically charge a monthly platform fee on top of hardware cost. At even $10 a month, that is $360 over three years before you buy the radios. The TomoLink bundles everything into one upfront number and removes that ongoing cost entirely during the included service period. For small teams and small businesses, that math matters.

What You Get	Details
Radios included	Two-pack out of the box
Price	$149.99
Data plan	SIM card and 3-year plan included (~800MB/month), no monthly fee
After 3 years	Renew through Radioddity or use a Nano SIM from AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile
License required	No
Platform fee	None

On-Device Group Management: No Dealer, No Backend

This is one of the most practically useful things about the TomoLink, and it is easy to overlook in a spec sheet. A lot of POC and business-band radio systems require you to go through a dealer or log into a web admin panel to create groups, add members, or make channel changes. That is fine for a large enterprise IT deployment, but it is real friction for smaller operations where the person buying the radios is also the person running the job site.

The TomoLink handles all of that on the radio itself. There is a dedicated Group Selector Knob on top of the unit for switching between groups, and you can go into the radio's menu to create groups and add members without any external tools. You can set up a "Construction Team A" or "Night Security" group in seconds, directly on the device. No programming cable, no dealer call, no web login. Radioddity says zero technical skills required, and based on the interface approach that is accurate.

Each group supports up to 200 members. For most deployments that is more headroom than you will ever need.

The Super PTT App: Smartphones in the Loop

The Super PTT app for iOS and Android adds two things beyond just managing the radio from your phone. First, a smartphone user can join a TomoLink group and communicate directly with the radios without carrying a radio themselves. If a supervisor or dispatcher wants to stay in the loop from an office or vehicle, they install the app and they are in. This is a genuinely useful feature for mixed teams where not everyone needs a dedicated radio.

Second, the app includes audio playback. If someone transmits while you are in a noisy environment and you miss it, you can replay the message. On a construction site with heavy equipment running or in a warehouse with forklifts moving, that is a real practical advantage. You do not have to ask someone to repeat themselves over the air. The message is there when you are ready to hear it.

The app also handles group creation and member management if you prefer doing it from a phone interface rather than on the radio itself. Both paths work, so you use whichever is more convenient for your workflow.

2W Speaker and Cellular Audio Quality

Most consumer-grade radios and even some business-band handhelds ship with a 1W speaker. The TomoLink steps that up to a 2W speaker, which Radioddity rates for loud, clear audio in demanding environments. On a job site with compressors running or in a warehouse with ambient noise, speaker output is not a trivial spec. A 1W speaker on a standard handheld can get buried in ambient noise. A 2W speaker has more headroom to cut through.

The cellular audio path also works in its favor here. Traditional analog radio audio quality degrades at the edges of range, getting noisy and breaking up as signal drops. Cellular audio behaves differently: within coverage you get consistent audio quality regardless of whether the other radio is across the street or across the country. Audio degradation due to distance is essentially not a factor.

Battery, Charging, and Physical Specs

The battery is a 2500 mAh Li-ion unit. Radioddity rates it for 24 hours of continuous use or up to 3 days of standby. The 24-hour continuous use number is the one that matters for most work deployments: a full work shift and then some without needing to recharge. The 3-day standby is useful for scenarios where the radio is on but not actively transmitting much, like a security patrol that mostly listens.

Charging is over USB-C, which removes the proprietary charger problem entirely. You can charge from a truck's USB port, a battery pack, or any standard cable you already have. For a job site where people are charging phones from their vehicles all day anyway, that means no separate charging infrastructure to deal with.

The physical dimensions are 2.4 x 1.1 x 4.7 inches (60 x 27 x 120 mm) and it weighs 4.9 oz (140 g). That is compact and light enough to carry on a belt clip all day without becoming a distraction. For reference, a standard Baofeng UV-5R with battery runs around 6.3 oz, so the TomoLink is lighter despite the larger battery capacity.

Spec	TomoLink
Network	TD-LTE / LTE-FDD (2G/4G)
Audio output	2W speaker
Group capacity	Up to 200 members per group
Battery capacity	2500 mAh Li-ion (3.7V)
Rated battery life	24 hours continuous use
Standby time	Up to 3 days
Charging	USB-C
Dimensions	2.4 x 1.1 x 4.7 in (60 x 27 x 120 mm)
Weight	4.9 oz (140 g)
App	Super PTT (iOS and Android)
SIM type	Nano SIM (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile compatible after plan expiry)
Warranty	18 months from radioddity.com, 12 months from other retailers

What Is in the Box

The TomoLink ships as a two-pack with everything you need to get both radios running immediately. The SIM cards come pre-installed, so there is no activation step before first use.

Item	Quantity	Notes
TomoLink radios	2	SIM pre-installed, 3-year data plan active
2500 mAh batteries	2	Li-ion 3.7V
Straps	2
Belt clips	2
USB-C charging cables	2
Adapters	2

The Obvious Limitation: Cellular Dependency

The TomoLink runs entirely on the cellular network. No cell service means no communication, full stop. These are not emergency radios, they are not suitable for off-grid use, and they are not a backup for situations where cellular infrastructure might be down. If there is a tower outage or a natural disaster knocks out cell service in your area, these radios go dark along with everything else on the network.

That is not a flaw in the product, it is just the nature of how POC radio works. Every device in this category has the same constraint. The important thing is to go in with clear expectations about what the technology is and what it is not. If you are buying these for a construction company where all your job sites are in areas with solid 4G coverage, cellular dependency is not a real problem. If someone is suggesting these as emergency backup communications, that is a different conversation and a different product category.

It is also worth noting that since these operate entirely over cellular data, there is no RF footprint from a regulatory standpoint. That is the same reason no license is required: these radios are not transmitting on any frequency. They are just data devices on the cell network, the same as a smartphone.

Warranty

Radioddity covers the TomoLink with an 18-month manufacturer's warranty when purchased directly from radioddity.com. Purchases through third-party platforms like Amazon carry a standard 12-month warranty instead. The extra six months of coverage is part of what you get buying direct. For a business deploying multiple units, that is worth factoring into the channel decision.

Frequently Asked Questions