Project PDA

General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)

GPRS is a radio technology for GSM networks that adds packet-switching protocols. As a 2.5G technology, GPRS enables high-speed wireless Internet and other data communications. GPRS networks can deliver SMS, MMS, email, games and WAP applications.

GPRS is different from the older Circuit Switched Data (or CSD) connection included in GSM standards. In CSD, a data connection establishes a circuit, and reserves the full bandwidth of that circuit during the lifetime of the connection. GPRS is packet-switched which means that multiple users share the same transmission channel, only transmitting when they have data to send. This means that the total available bandwidth can be immediately dedicated to those users who are actually sending at any given moment, providing higher utilisation where users only send or receive data intermittently. Web browsing, receiving e-mails as they arrive and instant messaging are examples of uses that require intermittent data transfers, which benefit from sharing the available bandwidth.

Usually, GPRS data are billed per kilobytes of information transceived while circuit-switched data connections are billed per second. The latter is to reflect the fact that even during times when no data are being transferred, the bandwidth is unavailable to other potential users.

GPRS is a new over-the-air service that transmits data packets to hand-held devices. It will allow much faster WAP transmission than currently available over SMS or CSD when using GSM.

• GPRS replaced dial-up mobile phone access, offering faster browsing of Internet content, and faster access to online services such as WAP, weband email.
• GPRS on a mobile phone doesn't use a phone number to connect, it uses something called an APN (Access Point Node).
• With GPRS, you don't pay your online time per-minute, you pay for the amount of data you transfer.
  To an extent, GPRS is now being superceded by faster data network services known as 3G
• If you cannot connect to GPRS or cannot receive data it may be due to the following reasons:
• Incompatible phone or PDAYou need to have a phone or PDA that is compatible with GPRS.
• Incorrect GPRS settings on phone or PDA
• Your phone or PDA must be configured with the correct MMS settings. Please refer to Handset Configuration or PDA Configuration for more details.
• Access to GPRS
• GPRS needs to be active on your account. To activate this service and to ensure you have the correct settings, please contact Customer Service on 1300 300 937.