DENVER, United States-Like the harmony of opposites, caution and adventure characterize the journey to the wide-scale rollout of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Vendors are playing starry-eyed idealists, while operators are avoiding a possible precipice on board the chief migration vehicle: handsets.
In view of their contrasting attitudes, operators’ low blood pressures urge them to simultaneously pull for GPRS and hold on to the time-tested certainties of second-generation (2G) technologies.
The vendors, operators and software companies are expected to be ready for the full implementation by the middle of 2001.
“Several operators have soft-launched GPRS or are piloting services with a selective corporate customer base. However, they are currently constrained from making full commercial launch,” said analyst firm Lehman Brothers in its recent report, Wireless Equipment Update: GPRS-Challenges Ahead.
The report identifies handset availability, compatibility of equipment, end-to-end network testing process, optimization of radio network deployment and international roaming as the technical and commercial obstacles to the full launch.
Lehman Brothers concludes its report with cautious optimism, expressing confidence in the ability of vendors like Nokia and Ericsson to be in top gear by the middle of the year while noting “that GPRS implementation would probably require more time and effort than anticipated, leading to probably some extra delays for a wide-scale launch.”
Not all in the industry see many obstacles. Scott Fox, president of Network Operations for Wireless Facilities, said virtually all conditions are ripe for the launch, although he agrees with Lehman Brothers’ fear about handsets.
“Things are going very well on the networks side,” he observed. “Infrastructure is fine and 50 more operators will be launched in 2001.”
Referring to BT Cellnet in Britain and T-Mobile in Germany, he said GPRS is already gaining ground.
“The problem is with terminals and other devices,” Fox added.
Fox, who will be stepping up as chairman of the GSM Association this year, does not anticipate handsets to shut down hopes, although he expects “terminal devices to slow things down a little.”
The Lehman Brothers report’s caution is also underlined by what it considers a slow customer migration pace partly because of contentment with existing services and limited GPRS service features.
Software companies are expected to provide the features, but they face the challenges of unstable software and how to standardize radio interfaces and interoperate vendor equipment for voice and data calls as well as the “always on” feature.
Of the three interfaces, only the network interface has been fully tested. The radio interface with handsets and base stations and Gi/Gp interface with Internet Protocol (IP) applications servers and core network have not been ascertained.
But Fox said applications are beginning to roll out for Internet access and e-mail.
GPRS launches will also face the problem of limited variety of handsets linked to components, software management, as well as radio interface testing.
“Only two brands with limited speed are commercially available to date, Motorola and Sagem, and two other brands, Trium of Mitsubishi and Ericsson are still struggling with software compatibility in trials,” said the report.
However, the report said that from the third quarter on, the problem should be much reduced when Nokia, Samsung and others release their GPRS models.
Providing billing systems is the other software problem the report anticipates.
