The Direct Talk feature is cool - in theory. Make sure you borrow a
couple of demos demonstrating the functionality.  The Direct Talk mode
and regular cell/direct-connect iDEN mode are mutually exclusive.

While you are in off-network mode:
1. You cannot  know someone is attempting to reach you from the iDEN
network, even if you have returned to a coverage area.
2. It does NOT switch back by itself once you return to coverage.
3. The off-network setup is clunky.

The only people we've sold it to is a large road-striping company that
works consistently in the middle of nowhere and Public Service for the
city and county - who wanted a back-up system for their Nextels in the
event of a catastrophe. The shortcomings were big deals to most of our
customers, but if you think it's cool - go for it.

With thirty mobile guys, you can't justify an extra $0.75 a day per guy
to know where they are? Has your sales-rep done a return-on-investment?
On average, we're saving service companies $1,700 per-guy per-year.
Overtime goes down, production and customer service improve. Of course,
that's only service companies - it doesn't work for everybody. The
bosses who got it because they were control freaks, got bored after a
few months and turned it off.

I don't intend to make your sales rep look bad, but thirty phones is a
sizable deal.  While free i315s is not an easy arrangement, it's
definitely do-able unless you're going for weenie rate-plans. Two-year
contracts, naturally.

Buy the damn phones already!   If you get the 315s, let us know how the
DT goes.