GPRS is a new way of sending and receiving data on the move with a mobile phone. Rather than setting up seperate continuous calls every time you want to connect the line is permanently held open, for your use, and others in your local area. Charging is therefore not done on the length of time you are connected, but on the amount of data you have sent or received.

Vodafone, Orange and O₂:

• GPRS now launched and available, for both WAP and data use
• Tariff must be added on top of your monthly voice subscription.
• Vodafone Tariffs
• Orange Tariffs
• O2 Tariffs

• Have confirmed plans for a June 2002 launch of GPRS

We sell all GPRS handsets currently on the market!

Charging:

A single WAP page contains approximately 1 kilobyte of data, whilst an e-mail of 100 words contains approximately 2.5 kilobytes.
Charging on the basis of kilobytes and megabytes is not something we can readily understand, it's definitely going to be a case of "suck it and see".
To get an idea, double click your monitor screens on the bottom right of the system tray now (if you're using Windows!), and see how long you have been connected for and how many bytes are displayed. e.g. If it shows 1,000,000 bytes this is 1Mb. Try and remember what you've been doing in this session, and this will begin to give you an idea of the costs you could incur!! Text only email could prove very reasonable though.

Speed:

Is GPRS fast? Yes and No. Flat out with nobody else using the network around you then yes, GPRS will perform more quickly than traditional GSM data at 9600bps. However, as your data is chopped into packets and transmitted along with all the other customers in the area the only thing which stays constant is the available bandwidth on the network. If it is shared between many users all of them will see a corresponding slow down in connection speed. So much so that at worst GPRS will be much slower than 9600bps. For dedicated high speed data transfer Orange's HSCSD service is still the only option. And for high bandwidth usage it should also be cheaper.

Factors which affect GPRS connectivity speed:

Handset specifications: by supporting a number of timeslots such handsets will perform better than lower spec phones with only 1 or 2 timeslot support
Network design: as with handsets a network may only be configured to offer X timeslots in the uplink and Z in the downlink, so your handset will be limited by that
Network load: As mentioned, with GPRS the fixed bandwidth is shared between users, so more users means less bandwidth per user
Coverage: This is really important. GPRS does not work like a normal voice or data call, which is usually reliable until the connection drops entirely, with GPRS the further you are from the base station the slower the link speed.

Techie Info: more info on this site

National Sales: 0870 733 2580 Fax: 0870 733 0852 e-mail: sales@freedom-mobiles.co.uk

©2001-2002 Freedom Mobiles Ltd Disclaimer E&OE

72 Elderslie Street, Charing Cross, Glasgow, G3 7AL.
Reg No: SC205544 VAT: 751 3539 35

(Established in 1996 as Freedom Phones, renamed Dec. 2000)