GPRS rollout steps up
Two of Poland's three mobile operators have taken the next step in offering third-generation wireless internet services with the introduction of general packet radio system (GPRS), a technology that speeds up data transmission over wireless networks.
Earlier this month, Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (Era GSM), the largest mobile operator in the country, rolled out GPRS on a trial basis to a group of about 2,000 corporate clients. PTK Centertel, which offers mobile services under the brand name Idea, also introduced its GPRS service. The country's third mobile operator, Polkomtel (Plus GSM), will announce a September rollout of GPRS this week, said Ryszard Woronowicz, Polkomtel's deputy spokesman.
GPRS is an extension of wireless application protocol (WAP), which allows special text-only, menu-structured web pages to be transferred to wireless handsets. The technology is a forerunner to Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), the third-generation wireless technology that will provide internet access with video capabilities and high-quality sound over mobile networks.
Earlier this year, all three operators introduced WAP services. But WAP transmissions are much slower than GPRS, which can transmit data, pictures and sound at the high speed of about 115 kilobytes per second through a continuous connection via wireless networks. Initially, however, GPRS will allow data transmission speeds of 40-50 kilobytes per second.
"Connecting with WAP and getting quotes from the Warsaw Stock Exchange takes one minute; with GPRS it takes 10 to 15 seconds," said Robert Niczewski, PTC's spokesman.
But the costs of the service will prevent mobile operators from profiting from GPRS, telecom analysts said. Furthermore, because of the expense of GPRS handsets, operators will have to offer customers subsidized prices, just as they did when mobile phones were first introduced in Poland, they said.
Michal Marczak, a telecom analyst at BRE Bank Securities, said that with the cost of implementing the new technology and the likely subsidizing of the expensive handsets, operators will have to wait two or three years before they see any profit.
Centertel, for example, offered WAP handsets for zl. 199 plus value-added tax. By contrast, Centertel is selling its GPRS handsets for zl. 1,000 each, with monthly fees of zl. 99 for 50 megabytes of data, said Jacek Kalinowski, Centertel's spokesman. Fees for GPRS service are paid by the amount of data transmitted, not by the duration of the connection as with mobile voice service or WAP. Both PTC and Polkomtel declined to disclose the costs of their GPRS service.
Although Kalinowski acknowledged that the high price of the handsets was a problem, he said Centertel expected to have 15,000 GPRS subscribers by the end of the year.
Pawel Zach, a telecom analyst at Citibank Polska, said GPRS would not yield any profit at all in Poland. He also said that the likely availability of UMTS in a few years would replace the demand for GPRS.
