TELECOMMUNICATIONS: GPRS LAUNCHED IN EUROPE AHEAD OF UMTS.

• Position: Industry Trend or Event

GPRS will be launched several months later than announced at the end of last year. A GPRS network is already operational in Portugal and operators such as the French company Bouygues Telecom have decided to focus on GPRS networks rather than invest in costly UMTS networks. GPRS phones can receive data at an average speed of 30 kilobytes per second, which makes rapid transfer of video and sound files possible. A further advantage of GPRS is that permanent connections are possible using a different charging structure. Subscribers can be charged for the amount of data transferred rather than the duration of the call.The first combination palmtops/mobile phones were launched recently by the French company Sagem and the Japanese operator Mitsubishi, using the brandname Trium. At CeBIT however, manufacturers were racing to announce that they would be marketing GPRS phones, more or less simultaneously from September 2001 onwards. They are anxious to dispel fears that the launch of GPRS networks across the larger European countries over the next six months will not be accompanied by a shortage of phones (as is feared for UMTS). Philips presented its Fisio 610 at the top of its new range of smaller, lighter mobile phones (90g). Working from voice commands and using T9 software to speed up the composition of SMS text messages (Short Messages Service), this mobile phone has a graphics screen and a WAP navigator. All manufacturers have included the option on their new phones of connecting to the Internet via the slower GSM standard which some subscribers use regularly (for reserving tickets and getting...