Nokia GPRS phone due out in Americas by year end

From...

By George A. Chidi Jr.

(IDG) -- Nokia Corp. expects to ship its first GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) cellular phone to the Americas by the end of 2001, the company announced in a statement Thursday.

The Nokia 8390 uses GPRS technology, permitting users to send and receive data without having a continuous dialup connection by using short, packet-switched burst transmissions. The company did not release pricing details.

IDG.net INFOCENTER IDG.net's main page Computerworld Communities Visit an IDG site Choose a site: IDG.net CIO Computerworld Darwin Dummies.com GamePro.com The Industry Standard ITWorld.com InfoWorld.com JavaWorld LinuxWorld Macworld Online Network World Fusion PC World Publish.com UnixInsider IDG.net search

Considered a stop-gap measure for wireless data services until 3G (third generation) networks can be built, GPRS works only with GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) networks, which are common in Europe but relatively rare in the U.S. AT&T Wireless Group Inc. uses a GSM network in the U.S. with plans to upgrade to a W-CDMA (wideband code division multiple access) 3G network. VoiceStream Wireless Corp., owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, also uses a GSM network in the U.S.

AT&T reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at the end of March that it has 15.7 million subscribers, while VoiceStream reported 3.3 million subscribers.