GPRS - Interim solution or long term problem?

I am seeking to join an organisation in developing new products and solutions within this market sector encompassing technologies of 3G / GPRS / Bluetooth. If any of the members are aware of any exciting opportunities, could you please e-mail me at .

On 16:06:53 9 May 2001 Alex wrote:
>To be fair to GPRS technology, it has managed to avoid the
>excessive hype that surrounded the launch of WAP networks
>- there has been little promise to deliver the world
>Internet on their telephones, the excessive claims of it's
>speed increases were managed since conception and
>technology trials kept small enough to manage expectations
>of the users and developers testing the technology.
>
>However as one of the current 25 Beta testers for
>BTCellnet's GPRS network I personally have serious issues
>over the defined purposes of GPRS technology versus it's
>current incarnation and just how much it will manage to
>bridge the gap between today's 2G networks and the distant
>future launch of 3G networks.
>
>Let's start with the basics - the ability to remain
>'always-on' and to deliver packet based data. In theory
>this sounds fantastic, users can simply delve into the
>world of online information at any point they need to and
>grab out useful snippets of information such as train
>times, today's weather and the headlines.
>
>However in reality the actual operation forces the user to
>abandon all other phone functions (such as essential ones
>like 'phone book' and 'voice calls') in order to access a
>seperate section of the phone device and to then wait
>considerable amounts of time for the device to establish
>the connection to its APN (Access Point Name) (I would
>argue it is longer than WAP connection times).
>
>Now I agree this may be to do with the current phone
>design, but that's another of my issues. The only GPRS
>devices available today are the, to be frankly honest, the
>non-userfriendly designed Motorola TimePort GRPS devices
>which are not only currently in short supply due to
>Motorola's financial difficulties in the UK but are also
>difficult to use as WAP devices. Trying to configure one
>of these GPRS devices to use the IP based GPRS networks of
>is at best frustrating for the experienced wireless
>developers that I work with, so the reliability of the
>2.5G user base configuring these correctly is not going to
>be high.
>
>This coupled with Orange's recent accouncement of a delay
>to the role of their GPRS services and BTCellnet's frankly
>painfull press launch of their services (note to Cellnet:
>must remember that too many GPRS phones on single cell
>uses up all available bandwidth) the role out of GPRS in
>my opinion will be slow, patchy and will be hopefully
>steamrollered by the emerging 3G networks going into build
>and test at the moment.
>
>I personally believe in the wireless internet as being one
>of the leading lights in the next few years, however all
>of the players in the market are going to need to smarten
>up their act to make it happen in a way that will
>encourage the mobile user base to take the services
>seriously. With a good network, good phone design and of
>course killer services - the mobile Internet will provide
>what most of the WAP adverts promised 18 months ago,
>however GPRS looks like providing another round of
>headaches rather than solutions for it's users.
>
>Alex
>
>Skywire Wireless Solutions
>providers of bespoke wireless consultancy and service
>development