Thought for the Day: A Boy's Own GPRS Story
by Simon Moores at Zentelligence
cw360.com
Wednesday 17 April 2002
Hard-hitting IT commentator Dr
Simons Moores gives his
personal take on the hot issue of
the day.
Time, I thought, for a new gadget. So, having upgraded my
mobile phone to the tiny, GPRS capable Ericsson T39, I
decided to see how well GPRS works. Could I really collect
my e-mail on the run or even use my phone as a high-speed,
infrared modem for my Compaq IPAQ?
Twenty-four hours after requesting the service from Project Telecom, my Vodafone
provider, there was still no evidence it was actually working. More importantly, my
phone's instruction manual tells me that I need a network ID and a password to use
GPRS. If you can remember the pain of using your first WAP phone, you will know what
happened next.
Eventually I managed to persuade Project Telecom to call me back with the settings for
the phone. Having entered these, there was still no evidence that GPRS was working
and it finally took a "reboot" of the phone before the service was recognised.
The good news? I can select "Services", "eMail", "Send & Receive" and, seconds later,
the first six messages from my POP3 Inbox at Easynet, appear on my phone. Six
messages are the limit on my Ericsson but it's still instant gratification of a sort.
And it's useful too. I took my small daughter to the zoo today, and I was able to read my
mail while she attempted to release the wolves from their enclosure. I suspect I'm
suffering from the worst form of e-mail dependency.
Of course, a six-message limit isn't really a stunning advantage, which is why I have my
pocket PC, a Compaq IPAQ. The technical support desk at the service provider
e-mailed me a six-page guide to setting it up to use GPRS. But could I get my Compaq
IPAQ to work with the Ericsson first time? Of course I couldn't. Many conversations later
with the support desk, we were still no nearer understanding why the pocket PC
attempts to dial out and then drops out.
Rescue came via Microsoft. The answer was "*99# " in the phone number field, and not
"99***1", as suggested by Project Telecom. Moments later, my IPAQ is browsing the
Web and picking up my e-mail almost as quickly, it seems, as my PC on the network.
Better pass the answer back to Vodafone.
So score one for Microsoft and for GPRS. It works, it's a little expensive but it solves my
mobile connectivity problems. Next step then is to get the BlackBerry PDA I've been
promised to work, so more fun and games to come, perhaps?
So if you're even thinking about GPRS over good old GSM, then watch this space!
--
162 days |
