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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, May 14, 2002

China Mobile to Formally Launch GPRS

China's dominant mobile telecom carrier is upgrading its network and launching new services on Friday to sharpen its competitive edge, company sources said.


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GPRS Introduction
The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a new nonvoice value added service that allows information to be sent and received across a mobile telephone network. It supplements today's Circuit Switched Data and Short Message Service. GPRS is NOT related to GPS (the Global Positioning System), a similar acronym that is often used in mobile contexts. further info
China's dominant mobile telecom carrier is upgrading its network and launching new services on Friday to sharpen its competitive edge, company sources said.

China Mobile, which controls more than 70 per cent of China's 161 million mobile phone users, will introduce the 2.5 generation (2.5G) mobile telecom services to its customers nationwide.

The 2.5G, using a GPRS (general packet radio services) system, provides more varieties of value-added data services, such as high-speed Internet access, colourful Internet browsing, e-mail on the move, powerful visual communications and location-based services.

It has been upgraded from the present 2G mobile telecom technology, which mainly supports voice-based communications.

To satiate the unquenchable thirsty for data-based communications
The public's demand for data-based communications is growing rapidly in China. The rapid growth of SMS, or short messaging service, is evidence of that demand.

China's mobile phone users sent 15.9 billion pieces of SMS last year and brought the carriers 1.6 billion yuan (US$192 million) in revenue.

Sending SMS has become fashionable among mobile phone users, especially young people, thanks to their cheap cost and convenience.

But many interesting services are not yet available on the present network because of restrictions of the 2G technology.

China Mobile hopes its 2.5G services will be as successful as i-mode services in Japan. The services were named Monternet, meaning mobile Internet.

To counteract China Unicom's CDMA
The move is widely regarded as a response to China Unicom's CDMA (code division multiple access) services.

China Unicom, the less dominant mobile telecom carrier, introduced CDMA services earlier this year. Unicom officials said they hope CDMA's good performance in data services will help it expand market coverage.

Yet CDMA's performance disappointed the market when it attracted only 800,000 users in four months. That growth rate was far below expectations.

Industry experts do not foresee an immediate strong performance for China Mobile's GPRS.

They said much must still be done before the network can support high-speed Internet access in areas with concentrations of mobile phone users.



China Mobile's GPRS Network
December 21, 2000 saw China Mobile Communications Corporation announce the formal launch of the construction of GPRS network in Beijing with the first-phase of the project to be completed and put into operation in the second quarter of this year. By then cell phone users in 25 cities of 16 provinces in China will be able to enjoy the GPRS network featuring the wideband and high-speed service.

A conversation between the reporter of the Beijing Youth Daily and Liu Xiangli (hereafter referred to as Liu), engineer in charge of the GPRS project is as follows.(In Detail)



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