Germany's T-Mobil launches GPRS
The contract to implement Motorola's high speed Aspira GPRS core network end-to-end solution was signed in January this year. Motorola and T-Mobil conducted trials last year, with the first live GPRS call in Germany made on the network in November.
T-Mobil's GPRS network will launch with Motorola's Timeport p7389i GPRS tri-mode phone.
Several GPRS-enabled demonstration applications were showcased at T-Mobil's launch announcement event, highlighting the capabilities of the packet data technology and the potential of this new service.
Working with California-based PacketVideo, Motorola's Aspira GPRS network carried a live video-over-GPRS demonstration, providing an illustration of possible applications including video conferencing, surveillance, and remote monitoring via the mobile terminal.
High speed Web browsing was demonstrated using California-based BlueKite.com's Data Reduxion technology, which optimizes the bandwidth available for packet-based mobile networks such as GPRS, and for the existing mobile networks such as GSM and CDMA.
Additional applications were integrated with the T-Mobil GPRS network by Invisix, the Motorola and Cisco joint venture applications integration organization, including an interactive Monopoly game for the press event, showing the versatility of the GPRS solution and the different markets it can serve.
Motorola's contract with T-Mobil is for the countrywide implementation of Aspira, including the Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), and the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) from Cisco. Motorola's GPRS architecture can be implemented over an existing GSM network. Its GSM infrastructure systems are GPRS-ready, requiring only a software load and PCU addition, with no modifications to existing hardware.
Edited by Ellen Jensen