The first specialized General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) workshop to take place in Jordan opened today at Grand Hyatt Amman, under the title “GPRS Technology on the Move”. The one-day forum will begin with keynote addresses by Minister of Information and Communications Technologies Fawaz Zu’obi and Basem Rousan, deputy general manager and chief of technical operations at Fastlink, followed by opening presentation given by Motorola and the Information Technology Association of Jordan, Intaj.
Grounds covered in the session will range between technical issues such as underlying technologies and derived applications, commercial concerns such billing strategies in view of new concepts ushered in by the modern technologies, marketing issues pertaining to promoting the new services by means of educating customers as to the benefits of the new services to both individuals and the corporations.
The GPRS workshop will also shed some light on Fastlink’s own experience in launching one the Middle East’s first commercial GPRS services, FastNet. In January 2002, Jordan’s most popular mobile network Fastlink announced the nationwide launch of its GPRS system for mobile communication (GSM).
“GPRS may be the single most critical issue facing the GSM industry as the transition from circuit switching to packet switching occurs. GPRS is no longer something that will come in the future, it is now with us in Jordan following the launch of FastNet early this year. GPRS opens the door for new Internet-based services and other high-speed data applications. As GPRS is the first phase of the IP platform implementations, future technologies such as EGDE and 3G will build upon it, opening the door for revolutionary broadband technologies that will forever change our concept of the mobile phone,” says Mr. Basem Rousan.
One of the main features of GPRS is the high speed of data transmission. “While the regular GSM data transfer rate is 9.6 Kbps, the GPRS launched by Fastlink currently provides a speed of up to 44 Kbps, and in the future the speed will be even higher reaching more than 170Kbps,” says Samer Bazyan, Data Group Manager at Fastlink.
For mobile users, GPRS brings continuous connectivity to the Internet and delivers a WAP service that is four times faster than what it used to be. Users can also hook up their PCs, laptops or Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) to their GPRS handset for a more traditional Internet experience that includes surfing, chatting, accessing email, etc.
For businesses, GPRS will soon mean “remote access” that enables employees to access their office-based systems when on the move. Using laptops, PDAs, they will be able to reach a range of applications including directories, e-mail, databases, calendars, stock-control lists or job schedules which are based on their Local Area Network (LAN). — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
