Mobile phone operator Eircell yesterday announced the roll-out of GPRS (General Packet Radio Services), the second phase of its mobile data service provision.
The service was officially launched by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, who conducted the first mobile commerce transaction in Europe using a GPRS network.
Eircell said it expects to invest £80 million (€101.57 million) in the development of the GPRS service over the next few years. The bulk of the investment will be used on network upgrades, software enhancements, customer equipment, sales and marketing and customer services.
The benefit of the new technology is that a user can log into a data network, such as a company LAN or an Internet service provider, and will always remain on, according to Eircell. This will decrease the waiting periods that exist with current technologies, it said.
Eircell's network is being developed by Ericsson and in its initial phase will offer speeds of up to five times current GSM speeds.
GPRS will also allow users to access company databases, download plans, receive customer histories and process orders while away from the office, said Mr Stephen Brewer, chief executive of Eircell.
He said he did not expect the teething problems experienced with the introduction of WAP phones. "The first WAP phone was a Nokia and was groundbreaking as a product. It had a number of software faults and those are now fixed," he said, adding that Eircell would be adopting a "soft launch" of GPRS, with corporate customers starting trials of the service in October.
