Monday, February 23, 2004		Feature

A step towards being 3G
Parteek Bhatia

GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is a step between GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and 3G cellular networks. GPRS offers faster data transmission via a GSM network within a range 9.6 KB to 115 KB. This new technology makes it possible for users to make telephone calls and transmit data at the same time. If you have a GPRS enabled mobile phone, you will be able to simultaneously make calls and receive e-mail messages. The main benefit of the GPRS is it reserves radio resources only when there is data to send and reduces reliance on traditional circuit-switched network elements. Unlike the circuit-switched 2G technology, GPRS is an "always-on "service. It will allow GSM operators to provide high speed Internet access at a reasonable cost by billing mobile-phone users for the amount of data they transfer rather than for the length of time they are connected to the network.

Why GPRS

Existing cellular data services do not fulfil the needs of users and providers.

• From the users’ point of view, the drawbacks are slow data rates, time-consuming connection set up and expensive service.

• From the providers’ point of view, the drawbacks are the use of a circuit-switched radio transmission where a complete traffic channel is allocated for a single user for the entire call period, resulting in a highly inefficient resource utilisation.

To address these inefficiencies, a cellular packet data technology was developed. It brings the advent of higher speed data services for most worldwide cellular networks.

GPRS versus GSM

GPRS scores over the GSM technology because it offers the following key features:

• Higher bandwidth and, therefore, data speeds.

• Seamless, immediate and continuous connection to the Internet.

• New text, visual data and content services, video-conferencing, e-commerce transactions and Internet-based remote access to corporate intranets and public networks.

• Packet switching rather than circuit switching, which means there is a higher radio spectrum efficiency because network resources and bandwidth are only used when data is actually transmitted even though it is always connected. GPRS will be available from laptops or handheld computers that are either connected to GPRS-capable cellular phones, external modems or that have PC card modems, smart phones that have full screen capability and cellular phones that have WAP micro browsers.