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To: Eric L who wrote (10663)	4/15/2001 7:45:10 PM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 34857

re: BT Cellnet GPRS Issues >> GPRS Faces Uphill Struggle Chris Lee IT Week 15 Apr 2001 Teething problems for GPRS, as network availability is not up to scratch Mobile operator BT Cellnet has defended its General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) service, following complaints from early customers about persistent problems of inadequate network availability. BT has been operating its GPRS network since September last year, but it currently treats data as a low priority. In periods of peak usage, customers have reported difficulties in making data calls. Users have also complained about quick-draining handset batteries, low throughput of data and frequent delays. "We monitor the success rates of both voice calls and GPRS continuously, and it may not be our network at fault here, it could be the customer infrastructure," said Peter Lisle, GPRS programme manager at BT Cellnet. Lisle went on to urge any customers encountering problems to get in touch with the company. However, experts in the industry said teething problems with GPRS were probably inevitable. Virtyt Koshi, a senior consultant at analyst company Ovum, said: "It appears that BT under-dimensioned its network by not providing enough resources to support demand. GPRS is at an initial stage in development. No one in the world has any real practical experience of it." Graham Rowan, director of business support solutions for telecoms consultancy Equador, agreed: "The network is still evolving, as are services. The problem is how to predict what services the network will have to support for whom, and [how to] prioritise them according to billing." GPRS is a packet-based wireless communications service based on the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM). In theory, it should offer data rates of between 56kbit/s and 114kbit/s and always-on network connectivity. Koshi said that other operators looking to offer GPRS will look at BT's experience and try to avoid the same problems. "It's trial and error at the moment," he said. << - Eric -