Now it's the U.S. GSM carrier's turn to deal with GPRS. AT&T Wireless has the most aggressive schedule for it, intending to create a nationwide GPRS network by year's end. The company is about 60 percent done. It's already launched services on using the network, offering a version of the wildly popular I-mode wireless Web service of NTT DoCoMo in Japan. NTT DoCoMo owns about 16 percent of AT&T Wireless.
But BMO Nesbitt Burns analyst Ray Sharma said AT&T Wireless' GPRS network is plagued by problems, mainly the lack of ability of different types of GPRS software to work together. It's led to delays in carriers certifying the product for use, Sharma writes.
Cingular Wireless intends to have most of the country covered by 2003 as well. It currently offers GPRS service in about two-dozens cities, but the network isn't breaking down any speed barriers. In fact, Cingular is capping the amount of bandwidth on their networks for data to travel over, saving most of it for voice calls.
Most carriers have similar network clampdowns on data, preferring to keep the bandwidth available for cellular calls. But that means the chances of getting a data connection are very low during peak calling times. If there are a lot of users, the bandwidth will slow to a crawl.
g the amount of bandwidth on their networks for data to travel over, saving most of it for voice calls.
Most carriers have similar network clampdowns on data, preferring to keep the bandwidth available for cellular calls. But that means the chances of getting a data connection are very low during peak calling times. If there are a lot of users, the bandwidth will slow to a crawl.
The result, says Brian Modoff, a telecom analyst with Deutsche Bank Securities in San Francisco, is not too encouraging. He bought a Motorola V60 GPRS phone from a Cingular store and began surfing away. It took less than five seconds to connect to the network and each Web page download took between three and six seconds--much faster than the networks of old, he wrote.
"But then 5 p.m. in downtown San Francisco hit," he wrote. "After repeated attempts at trying to connect to the network, we gave up and put our phone away for the evening."
VoiceStream's Thompson said VoiceStream Wireless has finished its GPRS network, and now offers it in 6,500 cities in the United States.
Like Cingular Wireless, VoiceStream is also treating data as a relatively second-class citizen. Voice calls will get priority over wireless Web sessions during busy network times, Thompson said.
Will GPRS have adoption problems similar to those it faced in Europe? TalkBack below or e-mail us with your thoughts.
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