Interview about China Mobile's GPRS NetworkDecember 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: Reporter: Though the GPRS network of China is about to be completed, yet quite a few people are still unfamiliar with it. Could you give a brief account of the GPRS? Whether the GSM network will eventually be replaced by it? Liu: GPRS, standing for General Packet Radio Service, is a high efficient method of data transmission based on packet exchange. It's simply a device for using the mobile phone on the Internet in a faster, cheaper and more convenient way. It's a misunderstanding for some people to think that the GSM network will be replaced after the GPRS network enters into operation. Actually, the GPRS is only a sort of technology in mobile telecom that is to be applied to the current GSM network. As a key link between the GSM and the 3G systems, the GPRS takes into consideration the compatibility of both the 3G-system and that of the second-generation i.e. the GSM and the introduction of the GPRS system will help prolong greatly the lifecycle of the GSM system and upgrade it. Reporter: Could you please say something about the present situation with regards to its application? Liu: Almost hundred companies in the world have so far opened the GPRS commercial, trial-commercial or experimental systems. The noted ones include BT Cell NET of Britain, T-Mobile of Germany, Smartone of Hong Kong and TSL of Taiwan as well as others from France, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Czech, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Australia, Singapore and the Philippines, etc. It can be said that all these companies have paid close attention to the GPRS and are eager to apply it for commercial purposes. Reporter: Should users need to buy the GPRS cell phones after the opening of its network, whether the SIM cards for the GSM mobile phones have to be changed accordingly? Liu: Yes, it has to be changed if the users need to buy the GPRS mobile phones. Because the GPRS is a totally new technology and, the hardware of the cell phone is quite different from that of a GSM cell phone and the software is more powerful in terms of function and, moreover, the GPRS cell phone can also be used under the GSM system too. The GPRS cell phones in the market now include GPRSR520 of Ericssion and L2000g of Motorola. Nokia and Simens will soon bring their own GPRS products out into the market. Most of the Chinese producers like Zhongxing, Konka, Eastcom, Xiaxin, Bird, etc. have all announced their research and manufacturing of the GPRS cell phones. However, the SIM card used for the GSM cell phone at present needn't be changed. Reporter: Then, what's the difference between exploring Internet by the GPRS and the dial-up connection? How will it be charged? Liu: the present WAP cell phone accesses the Internet via a dial-up connection, which is similar to the use of the modem on a PC set. The GPRS cell phone has its outstanding advantages in comparison to the WAP phones. It takes only three to six seconds for the GPRS phones to access the Internet. The highest record of its data download ratio can reach 170 kbits per second, much speedier than the 9.6 kbits per second of the GSM network, and it is also two times faster than the modem of a PC set. Due to its huge throughput, wireless application is not only available for text file, but also for multimedia service including picture, voice and video. Thanks to its high transmission speed, the GPRS cell phone can be used to send e-mail, colorful digital photos and large-volume files and is more than enough for playing games on the Internet. Apart from the advantage in speed, another important feature of the GPRS is "Always Online", namely, the users can keep in touch with the Internet at any moment. For example, if the user doesn't want to send or receive any data when having viewed the Internet, his cell phone will enter into a state of quasi-dormancy and releases the wireless channel to other users while keep a logical link with the Internet. Then, when the user click a hyperlink again, the cell phone can immediately switch to transmit data instead of requiring another dial-up to connect the Internet once again. As known to many people, the GPRS cell phone will be charged based on the data volume transmitted via the Internet instead of being charged on the time. That is to say, so long as you don't view, download or transmit any data, you needn't pay any money for your "online", and so the charge will be much lower than that for a GSM-WAP mobile phone. In addition, the user can only view the specially designed web-page via the GSM-WAP mobile phone and such websites are scarce at present. However, the GPRS mobile phone can not only be used to connect the ordinary web-page in a more convenient and quicker way but also very fascinating to people with its wireless mobility. For these reasons, the GPRS technology will make the WAP more applicable in so far as the service scope is concerned. It is believed that the users' demand for experiencing the new field of mobile telecom will soon be satisfactorily realized. Reporter: Whether the service for GSM users will be weakened after the opening of the GPRS network? Liu: No, so far as the Beijing Branch of China Mobile is concerned, it will try its best to provide excellent services, especially voice service for all the GSM users. The opening of the GPRS network won't affect the voice quality of the GSM cell-phones. By PD Online staff member Deng Gang |
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