Is GPRS the answer?

dpajur

I see all this talk about broadband access and nobody offering any service in terms of cable, ADSL or even flat rate modem access...

What about GPRS? As far as I know nobody's stopping the mobile operators from going GPRS... And the bandwidth is 170kbps, which is a lot more than a crappy modem and still more than eircom hispeed with both channels on. Not to mention it's always-on, needs no wires and shouldn't need any complicated installation procedures. And god knows there's plenty of phones out there with GPRS.

I know a friend of mine in eastern europe is connecting to the internet using his mobile and leaves it on most of the time. He only uses that to be available on ICQ and send/receive email. Considering the fact that esat cannot do much in the broadband arena, and that they own digifone (right?) what's preventing them from rolling out a GPRS always-on internet service nationwide?

mdf

Esat don't own Digifone. Digifone is a wholly owned subsidiary of mm02.

bkehoe

Digifone and Vodafone both offer GPRS here, with speeds of 43kbit approx. They are quite expensive though if you want to do anything other than email, icq, irc, e.t.c.

Brendan

spongebob

Hi

There are 3 ways to deliver data to your mobile at the moment.

1. Bog standard dialup data at 9.6kbit per second or 14.4k with the 'wider' slot.

2. HSCSD (Eircell only) which bonds 3 of these wide slots together to give 43.2k MAX , they could bond 4 and give 57.6k if they wanted, the fones can handle that.

The constraint is that only 2 or 3 fones can negotiate a HSCSD connection with a network such as Eircell, notably the Nokia 6120.

The 43.2k connection is bidirectional making this the FASTEST uplink around , short of ISDN, analog uplink is 28.8k UP or 33.6k UP if the rumours about eircom.net being v92 complaint are to be believed.

3. GPRS as offered in Ireland is ONLY capable of the same speed 43.2k , as HSCSD but you pay by data received not by minutes connected. 170k may be possible but the networks will not turn on the timeslots to enable you to do this where the signal allows.
They may widen it in time.

M

Delphi91

Originally posted by dpajur
...what's preventing them from rolling out a GPRS always-on internet service nationwide?

They have!
http://www.digifone.ie/news_gprs.jsp

Mike

NeMiSiS

For the top speed on GPRS your fone must also support 8 slots
I think most GPRS fones are between 3- 4 slots.

Digifones prices for the service are crazy theres no real way you could use it for irc,icq,etc without being well screwed over http://www.digifone.ie/business_priceplans_gprs.jsp 50mb for 50 euro is crazy(and then 1.50e there after!),they pressume that you will be browsing the web on the your fone,instead of plugging it into a laptop,I even think the Compaq ipaq is having a GPRS sleeve released soon over here.

Basically esat seem to have there wires crossed they dont see "the big picture" the mobile networks should be able to handle 3g fones by mid 2003 as far as I know so maybe they wont be so dumb when it comes to their prices for that.

Also on another note Ive gotten at least 5 fone calls in 2 months from Eircon asking me would I like 'HI - Speed' they dont seem to get the message ... the last person that rang the conversation went somewhat like

Him : Is Mr blah there
me: whats it concearn ?
him: "Eircom hi speed"
me:You mean ISDN,thats ****ing **** and expensive,ring me back when you can offer ADSL

Then I hung up

spongebob

I err.

HSCSD supports 56k max but ONLY in a configuration where you have 43.2k DOWN and 14.4k UP

The slots are unidirectional, up or down, my mistake there.

Therefore Eircell is as fast as currently possible, not nearly so.

There is no proposed upgrade to this 3 slots sown 1 slot up schematic.

No proposal that I know of exists to widen the slots beyond 14k (same size slot as is used in GPRS) at least before 3G comes along.

Only 1 fone supports the 4 x 14k slots in HSCSD mode, Nokia 6210 , other fones support smaller slots , not fewer...eg 4 x 9.6k giving 28.8 down and 9.6 up.

The damning thing is this.

a) It is possible to get a 1p a minute tariff sat and sun with Eircell to land line.

b) at 43.2 k you can download about 5k (bytes) a second

c) you can download 1Mb in less than 3.5 minutes

spongebob

I err.

HSCSD supports 56k max but ONLY in a configuration where you have 43.2k DOWN and 14.4k UP

The slots are unidirectional, up or down, my mistake there.

Therefore Eircell is as fast as currently possible, not nearly so.

There is no proposed upgrade to this 3 slots sown 1 slot up schematic.

No proposal that I know of exists to widen the slots beyond 14k (same size slot as is used in GPRS) at least before 3G comes along.

Only 1 fone supports the 4 x 14k slots in HSCSD mode, Nokia 6210 , other fones support smaller slots , not fewer...eg 4 x 9.6k giving 28.8 down and 9.6 up.

The damning thing is this.

a) It is possible to get a 2.5p a minute tariff sat and sun with Eircell to land line.

b) at 43.2 k you can download about 5k (bytes) a second

c) you can download 1Mb in less than 3.5 minutes

1024/5 = 205 seconds ....

d) That will cost you 9p therefore you can download 50Mbyte for £4.50which is €6

All those figures include VAT but assume you use weekend rates.

e) Why would a rational person see that €50 + VAT for 50Mb GPRS is a good deal?

Another argument for flatrating methinks.

M