GPRS REALLY SUCKS -- or NOK's plan to SCREW their CUSTOMERS
GPRS networks: wireless sour grapes?
Oh gee, here comes 2.5G
By Ben Charny
Special to ZDNet
June 7, 2002
GPRS is the data delivery arm of cellular telephone networks using the Global System for Mobile Communications
(GSM) standard, which is at the core of between 70 and 80 percent of the world's telephone networks. GPRS is
supposed to provide Web download speeds slightly faster than those from a typical dial-up Internet connection like
AOL. Wireless carriers choosing GSM have little--if any--alternative than to use GPRS if they want to evolve to the
much-hyped third-generation (3G) networks promising wireless download speeds of at least 144kbps, according to
Kim Thompson, a spokeswoman for VoiceStream Wireless.
Most major U.S. carriers plan to build these 3G telephone networks. Verizon Wireless has already launched one;
Sprint PCS will launch its network in July or August.
GPRS was first deployed throughout Europe two years ago, but with disastrous results.
The hope was the download speeds of GPRS would make it palatable for a European cell phone owner already
sending billions of wireless messages a month to do even more complex and expensive things like swapping picture
messages or downloading songs.
But carriers overpaid for government spectrum licenses, waited years for handsets from vendors, then built
bug-filled networks using the generally untested first generation of GPRS phones and network equipment.
The industry was having problems meeting the hype over the networks' download abilities, for example. European
carriers were expecting to offer services based on download speeds averaging upwards of 60kbps. Instead, they
could only produce 20kbps, said David Kerr, vice president of wireless practice at Strategy Analytics, a consulting
firm.
Nokia, Siemens and Ericsson disappointed most European carriers by repeatedly missing GPRS handset delivery
deadlines. And those handsets that made it to market were buggy. One Nokia GPRS phone had a faulty screen,
which faded to black with time. The GPRS networks also had trouble when someone was simultaneously moving
and using the phone. The call or Web session was interrupted because base stations couldn't hand off the call, Kerr
said.
The networks also had trouble when someone was moving and using the phone at the same time. The call or Web
session was interrupted because base stations couldn't hand off the call, Kerr said.
The result was European consumer apathy--something carriers in Europe didn't count on. In April, Europe's biggest
mobile phone seller, Carphone Warehouse, said stores were selling about 35,000 GPRS handsets a month. But
only 200 subscribers were signing up every month for GPRS wireless Internet service via Carphone
Warehouse.
Network and phone problems persist in Europe. For example, calls are often dropped when someone roams from
one cellular site to another, according to sources. Also, some of the Nokia GPRS phones that were part of a batch
with faulty screens shipped in 2001 continue to surface in the United States and other countries, according to Nokia
spokesman Keith Nowak.
The company is no longer using the supplier of the faulty screens, Nowak said. "The problem has been contained."
techupdate.zdnet.com. |
