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General packet Radio Service, the first
of a series of improvements to the wireless gsm standard, enabling data to be
transmitted to a mobile phone or pad at higher speeds than the
original specification allowed. With suitable equipment, subscribers to
gprs can check e- mail on the move, browse the web and
even indulge in instant messaging. But despite early promises of its
performance, gprs data services have proved to be less spectacular
than the isps who sell them had hoped. User uptake has been slow
because of late availability of the costly new handsets and the expensive
pay-per-megabyte costs of using them. A further barrier is speed :
most commercial offerings in Europe deliver data speeds of about 40kbps,
almost ten times less than the theoretical maximum. Many users appear
to be waiting for the arrival of faster 3G services. |
