[June 23] Germany’s GSM network operator
T-Mobil announced
Friday the launch of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) on
the T-D1 network to provide a rapid mobile data capability
to all its subscribers.
T-Mobil’s service launches with the Motorola Timeport p7389i
GPRS phone — the world’s first GSM tri-band GPRS handset.
Jeff Gordon, corporate vice president and general
manager of Motorola Network Solutions Sector EMEA, said
the new service was an example of supplier and operator
working together to deliver an end-to-end, first to market
solution.
Still in its early stages, despite all the launch excitement,
the GPRS-enabled service has huge potential. For example,
it can carry live video, opening up applications such
as video conferencing, surveillance and remote monitoring
via the mobile terminal.
Motorola has worked
with California-based
PacketVideo to
demonstrate how live video-over-GPRS works on its
Aspira GPRS network.
Another application made possible by GPRS is high speed
Web browsing. This, too, was demonstrated at the launch
by using Data Reduxion technology from
BlueKite.com,
another California-based company. The BlueKite.com solution
brings the Internet’s full content to devices equipped
with standard browsers.
Users of the new Timeport p7389i GPRS phone can gain
quick access to email, train timetables, weather and
traffic conditions “almost anywhere in the world,”
according to Motorola. Features include VibraCall
discreet alert, and intelligent keypad entry which
guesses what the user is trying to spell.
Motorola has a contract with T-Mobil to implement its
Aspira GPRS network solution throughout Germany in
a deal that includes infrastructure technology from
Cisco Systems.