--Mike
re: Clayton Christensen on GPRS and wireless access to the internet
<< What is the GPRS that is constantly being delayed? Is it 2.5G or 3G? >>
Strictly and legitimately 2.5G.
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a relatively low cost "always on" packet-switched data bearer service upgrade to a GSM network, which when combined with GRX (Global Roaming Exchange), extends GSM voice roaming to GPRS (and WCDMA) data roaming worldwide.
More importantly it is the bearer service for (3G) EDGE and more importantly yet it is the bearer service for (3G) 3GSM or WCDMA.
It is something of a bandwidth hog so it will be used primarily in conjunction with WAP 2 (WAP 1.2.1 initially) and not for large file downloads. GSM High Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD), which - while still a bandwidth hog -is much better suited to file downloads and corporate access to in-house LANs and corporate Intranets, especially when used with sophisticated and highly functional business tools like the Nokia 9210 Communicator.
GPRS is rather "officially" just about 1 year late. Both Ericsson & Motorola committed to having production subscriber equipment on retailers shelves last Christmas. Ericsson advised the industry last September that they would be late, and production deliveries by Motorola to Sonera initially experienced significant problems (now resolved) on Sonera's Ericsson & Nokia network infrastructure.
<< I believe that's the technology Christensen and the person asking the question was referring to >>
That is precisely the technology that Christensen was being asked about, and responded to. The point of this is that GPRS has the potential to be sufficiently "adequate" enough to delay true 3G multimedia data services, even though GPRS is not well suited to multimedia data.
The Hambrecht staff picked up on this and added 1xRTT to GPRS in the 2.5G category, because most wireless research houses consider 1xRTT (without 1xEV-DO) to be 2.5G, regardless of what Qualcomm and CDG are trying to label it. I could care less, because it rings the Qualcomm cash register, and as a CDMA user I'll be enjoying enhanced data rates with 1xRTT sometime next year on the best possible high end WID I can find at the time when I am ready to make the migration.
<< I'm referring to the so-called "first" GPRS handset that was shipped in Europe to the Isle of Mann (I think.) As I understand it, that technology is still not deployed to customers. >>
That handset is not GPRS - although the bearer service is GPRS. It is 3G WCDMA supplied by NEC and is currently being used by a handful of friendly users (BT Manx, NEC, and Siemens employees) on NEC infrastructure on the Isle of Man. A commercial launch has been postponed till September or October.
It is the same (one of the same) handsets, and the same infrastructure being deployed by DoCOMO for its high speed (364 kbps downlink. 64 kbps uplink) WCDMA FOMA service which includes high speed packet-switched 'i-mode' and 64 kbps circuit-switched for vide applications. FOMA "introductory service" has 4,700 subs, (culled from 175,000 corporate and private applicants), and will not launch commercial till at least October, and the October launch will not be fully compliant to the current baseline forward-compatible UMTS 'R99' standard.
For those that are interested, some links:
1. Very accurate and reasonably comprehensive and objective article on GPRS (upside/downside) by Peter Rysavy:
rysavy.com
2. Follow up to the above article (AWS specific):
rysavy.com
3. HSCSD FAQ:
Message 15975529
4. Official site for BT Manx WCDMA on Isle of Man:
bt3gshowcase.com
5. 9 page PDF detailing the Isle of Man network evolution:
worldsfirst3g.com
6. Official site for DoCoMo 'FOMA' WCDMA (with 'i-mode' service) in Tokyo:
foma.nttdocomo.co.jp
Best,
--Eric |
