YOUR CELL'S FASTEST ROUTE TO THE NET
Ités like DSL for your cell phone. Sort of. GPRS — general packet radio service — is an always-on system that connects your phone to the Internet. Now entering the US market, the service delivers Web connections at speeds somewhere south of low-end broadband. Known as 2.5G, GPRS is likely to be the closest Americans come to the promised 3G mobile phone system for a long, long time. Hereés how it works.
START WITH THE BASICS
Bring on the acronyms: GPRS is an add-on to GSM, the global system for mobile communication that dominates cell phones in Europe and Asia. Some of the big US mobile carriers — Cingular, VoiceStream, AT&T — are adopting GSM. The big deal about GPRS: It allows data to move in packets, just like the Internet. That means your phone can access the Web and email.
TRADE VOICE FOR DATA
Carriers that deploy GPRS can dedicate up to eight channels to data communications — the more used, the faster the data moves. The service adjusts individual phones on the fly, boosting bandwidth across the system as traffic gets heavier. Unfortunately, the so-called type 1 phones likely to be sold in the US max out at four GPRS slots — more than that would require smarter chips and bigger batteries.
GET READY FOR LOCAL SERVICE
In the US, only VoiceStream has a nationwide GPRS network ($60 a month for a premium package). Cingular offers GPRS in eight states ($50 a month for high-end service) and expects to cover ten other markets by the end of this year. AT&T plans for a national rollout of GSM and GPRS services by yearés end.
DON'T RULE OUT CDMA
If youére a Verizon or Sprint PCS customer using a phone that runs on CDMA — the digital norm in the US — fear not: Qualcomm has developed a technology similar to GPRS called 1xRTT, which promises speeds of nearly 65 Kbps today and up to 307 Kbps within a few years. Verizon is selling the service under its Express Network moniker. You access it with a PC card and an integrated data-only cell phone.
WAIT FOR THE RIGHT HARDWARE
Although GPRS is available now, most of todayés cell phones canét handle it. If you want an affordable GPRS-enabled cell with either integrated 802.11 or Bluetooth to connect your laptop to the Internet, youéll have to wait until next spring. On the other hand, GPRS-enabled PDAs could hit the street this fall.
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