GPRS hopes to succeed where WAP failed
By : Roseanne Gerin
The general packet radio system (GPRS), a technology for zippy data transmission over wireless networks, was introduced in Poland last year by all three of the country's mobile operators. This year would mark the commercial rollout of the network in Poland and elsewhere with more terminals being supplied to the market, industry professionals said.
So far, only the U.S. telecom equipment producer Motorola has sold GPRS-enabled handsets in Poland and the rest of Europe. But Sweden's Ericsson and Finland's Nokia said they would introduce GPRS handsets for commercial sale this year as well.
GPRS is a halfway point between wireless applications protocol (WAP) and full-blown third-generation mobile Internet technologies, namely universal mobile telecommunication system technology (UMTS). Whereas WAP allowed users to access special text-only Web pages, GPRS will enable users to send spreadsheets via mobile handsets at about 40-45 kilobytes per second, although manufacturers say GPRS terminals theoretically could transfer data at 80 kilobytes per second in the near future. And unlike WAP where users must dial up for a connection, GPRS will always be on.
"GPRS is the add-on to the existing network," said Krzysztof Burzynski, a sales and marketing manager at Ericsson Poland. "It's not a new network or platform; it's one more technical opportunity that is a major breakthrough in communcation technology, which is a part of the existing GSM networks. It's a test case for applications and services that could be used with UMTS."
Poland's three mobile service operators Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC/Era), Polkomtel (Plus) and Polska Telefonia Komorkowa (PTK) Centertel (Idea) conducted tests and trial runs of their GPRS networks last year after installing special GPRS nodes in their existing mobile base stations. But the introduction of service to clients was delayed since few handsets were commercially available.
Handset producers, however, were still contending with technological problems concerning power consumption, which caused handsets to become hot during usage. "Usually in these technologies, the most difficult part is how to make the handset, and how to implement everything into the handset," Burzynski said.
Industry professionals say that the demand for GPRS will come from business clients who need data transmission capabilities while they are on the move and who will be able to afford the technology's initially steep prices.
The wholesale price for mid-range GPRS handsets is less than DM 1,000, said Pawel Brukszo, a sales and marketing director at Motorola Poland who oversees handset sales in Central Europe. High-end models sell for DM 1,100-DM 1,200. In two years, he predicted, all new mobile handsets sold in Poland would be GPRS equipped and less expensive. For now, however they are priced 50-60% above the market.
Local mobile operators charge a monthly access tariff as well as a fee for the amount of data transferred. PTC, for example, which now offers only WAP access through GPRS, charges a zl. 10 monthly fee and zl. 0.6 per 10 kilobytes of information.
With the rollout of commercial GPRS services getting underway, neither suppliers nor vendors are repeating the same marketing mistakes they did with WAP technology, industry professionals said. The so-called WAP flop resulted from unrealistic consumer expectations based on hyped-up marketing.
"WAP was not successful because it was badly advertised, and Polish customers got the wrong message," said Robert Niczewski, PTC's spokesman. "The Polish consumer understood that with the new technology they'd get a direct connection to the Internet and that they would get every page with text, but no pictures."
But instead they received slow access and Web pages that were sometimes difficult to read and tedious to browse through.
"The problem was that the market expectation (for WAP) was much higher than the technology could deliver," Burzynski said. "There was a (lot) of marketing hype around WAP (but) it was a little slow and not as fancy as the Internet. It was a real disappointment."
As a result, the market expectations for GPRS are much quieter compared to WAP. "Everybody's very careful not to do any technology-based marketing around GPRS," Burzynski said. "Everybody is trying to focus on service and what can be delivered, and as long as there are no really attractive services, there will be not that much marketing around."
Once orders for GPRS handsets are filled, there will be a need for companies that can offer GPRS services and applications, industry sources said. The technology's success in Poland and the rest of the European continent will depend on supplementary services. "Everything depends on the content," Brukszo said.
