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But GPRS is coming soon ....
>> The hurdles that could hinder GPRS
totaltele.com
Joanne Taaffe
22 May 2000
Network operators are concerned that the smooth rollout of GPRS services could be compromised by a lack of handsets and mobile data-cards.
As mobile networks are upgraded to facilitate data applications that will provide important new revenue streams, operators will also face challenges in training up staff to support new services.
These problems are all the more worrying because, according to some of the operators themselves, GPRS represents a bigger step-change than even 3G.
"GPRS ... is the revolution, not UMTS," said Craig Tillotson, director of business strategy at Borehamwood, England-based mobile operator One 2 One, at a recent GPRS conference in Cannes, France.
GSM operators around Europe have begun building and testing general packet radio service networks, which for most will be the crucial step towards 3G.
GPRS will usher in both the new corporate and consumer data services and the partnerships with content and e-commerce providers that will form the mainstay of operators' 3G business. "[From] GPRS and WAP the lessons are more or less the same for UMTS," said Manfred Schmitz, technical lead, GPRS, at VIAG Interkom GmbH, of Munich.
Implementing a GPRS network requires operators to install new software nodes and adjust existing network structure, far less expensive and technically demanding than installing a UMTS network.
However, shifting to GPRS is still far from being simple, as it requires voice operators to offer, support and bill for brand new data applications.
So far 29 GSM operators have announced the awarding of GPRS contracts and only six operators, spread over five countries, are undertaking active GPRS trials, according to wireless market research firm EMC, of Walton on Thames, England.
As a result GPRS services will not be widely available in Europe until next year. Before operators are ready to launch commercial services, they first have to oversee the technical problems of building and testing a new IP data network; the installation and testing of new billing systems; and the development and testing of applications that are optimized for a mobile network.
Operators also need to be confident that GPRS handsets will be available in time for commercial rollout. Handset availability is a recurring problem for mobile operators, some of whom have had to wait six months to roll out wireless application protocol (WAP) services, because vendors had not started shipping the phones in volume. EMC expects GPRS handsets to be commercially available in the second half of the year, with wide-scale rollout unlikely before 2001.
Handsets are key
"The availability of terminals is absolutely key. It can't be again as with WAP and HSCSD [High Speed Circuit Switched Data], with networks ready and terminals not," said Schmitz.
Further, mobile operators have to price and market new data services of which they have no previous experience. "Building a GPRS network looks easy on PowerPoint, but it's almost as difficult as building [another] GSM network," said Jir Kubasta, marketing projects manager with the Czech mobile operator, RadioMobil.
Despite the obstacles lying ahead, there are unbeatable arguments for taking on the challenge of launching GPRS services.
The principle one is that operators can no longer compete solely on the basis of undifferentiated voice services, especially as the price of voice calls is falling. "It's simpler to differentiate [with GPRS]. With voice only, there is one service and it's the same for all operators," said VIAG Interkom's Schmitz.
And 3G services are unlikely to hit most markets before 2002/2003.
BT Cellnet, Slough, England, will be amongst the first European operators to offer commercial services across a GPRS network.
The U.K. operator began testing its GPRS system from Motorola Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. in April last year. The company now plans to launch commercial GPRS services within the next six weeks.
Corporate demand
Like many other operators, BT Cellnet believes that the first adopters of GPRS services will be corporate customers demanding secure wireless intranet access, as well as e-mail and scheduling applications while on the road.
BT Cellnet will therefore roll out corporate applications by June, before introducing high-volume consumer applications toward the end of 2000, said Jim Donahue, GPRS network program manager at BT Cellnet. The initial corporate applications will include Mobile Office for Corporates, which the operator has developed with Microsoft Corp.
Unlike his peers, BT Cellnet's Donahue is confident there will be enough handsets for the operator's services, but he is concerned by a lack of mobile data cards, which slot into laptops to establish a GPRS network connection. "There is no commitment to data cards. It will be Q4 at the earliest," said Donahue, adding that "mobile access to intranets would be more applicable to mobile data cards [and laptops]."
Application development was an important part of BT Cellnet's preparation for GPRS. Donahue stressed the importance of delivering applications that work well over mobile networks. "You need applications optimized for GPRS," said Donahue, adding that "WAP ... work[s] well with GPRS."
Yet however hard operators work to prepare their networks, test applications and develop billing systems, they may find that their headaches really begin once customers have started using their services. The move to selling data services will demand an overhaul of the customer-care department, whose staff - long accustomed to selling voice and SMS over a fairly standard handset - will have to acquire some of the skills of computer help-desk staff.
"Now customer care is [dealing with] handset problems and voice-mail.
They have no competence in computer systems. It's a really big task for [the customer care department]," said RadioMobil's Kubasta.
The help-desk is not the only potential source of frustration for customers; they may find the initial data transfer rates of GPRS networks lower then they had expected.
Like other operators that have tested GPRS either in laboratories or on live GSM networks, BT Cellnet found that data transfer rates were much lower in practice than the optimum transfer rates for GPRS of 115 kilobits per second.
One 2 One also does not expect to offer data over GPRS at speeds approaching the optimum rates of 115 Kbps until the latter part of 2001.
One of the reasons for lower than hoped-for data transfer speeds is that operators will have to launch services with Phase I GPRS. However, Phase 2 GPRS, expected to be available in 2001, will include improvements in quality of service, as well as advanced pricing and billing functions and fraud information gathering systems.
GPRS timeline
The GSM Association has established the following timetable for the adoption of GPRS:
* Throughout 1999: Network operators place trial and commercial contracts for GPRS infrastructure.
* 2000: GPRS infrastructure installed in GSM networks.
* Summer of 2000: First-trial GPRS services become available with typical user throughput of 28 Kbps.
* Early 2001: Basic GPRS-capable terminals available in commercial quantities.
* Throughout 2001: Network operators launch GPRS services commercially.
* 2001/2: Typical single user throughput increases to 56 Kbps. More capable terminals become available.
* 2002: Typical single user throughput is likely to be 112 Kbps. GPRS Phase 2/ EDGE begins to emerge. GPRS Phase 2
* 2002: GPRS is routinely incorporated into GSM mobile phones
* 2002/3: UMTS becomes available commercially.
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