| 5 31 2002
MTN South Africa has launched its MTNdataLIVE (GPRS) offering in a trial
phase to its contract subscriber base, prior to the commercial launch.
Now all MTN subscribers with GPRS enabled handsets can be online all the time,
sending and receiving data at no cost for a limited period.
"When we got MTNdataLIVE up and running on more than 95% of our network a couple of months ago and communicated our plan, we had a great response from
people wanting to use the technology. Not only from customers, but from companies and individuals looking to develop services and content based on
the technology." says Sifiso Dabengwa, managing director of MTN.
"This free trial open time is a great way for those people to test and work
with MTNdataLIVE before we go to a full blown commercial launch. We hope to
get some feedback from everyone who does use it."
GPRS is considered the most important innovation to hit GSM mobile phone
networks since digital voice technology revolutionised communications in the
early 1990s.
While the technology has been functional on the MTN network for some time,
the market has not been ready for the service. MTN asserts that the number
of GPRS handsets is now significant and that the use of WAP to browse the Internet via cellular handsets increases by 70% month on month on its
network.
The free trial window is available to the almost 40 000 MTN contract subscribers with GPRS enabled handsets already on the MTN network.
According to Georges Bongi, group executive of marketing and strategy at MTN, this free window is not a reflection of what is coming when the service
goes commercial.
"Until the commercial launch, people with GPRS-enabled handsets will essentially have access to existing mobile data services and it will allow
their phones to be used as modems with free Internet access," explains Bongi.
"We will be announcing the tariff structure along with a great new range of
products and services at a later date which will be what really differentiates MTNdataLIVE as an offering. From that point we will continue
to develop new offerings with our partners to improve the service into the
future."
MTNdataLIVE will allow significant data mobility and will form part of MTN's
mobile data suite, which includes the well-entrenched MTNdataFAST.
MTNdataLIVE provides a mobile link directly into the internet and MTN is
already working with solutions partners to build innovative and exciting
products for both corporates and consumers. It is the perfect bearer for
many kinds of applications including multimedia messaging, imaging and
browsing GPRS is the high-speed data evolution of GSM and supports Internet Protocol
(IP), enabling access to Internet and intranet content and applications from
GPRS wireless devices. GPRS utilizes packet switching technology where information is transmitted in short bursts of data over an IP-based
network GPRS provides a quick session set up and fast data transmission speeds. GPRS
can use multiple time slots for data transfer as opposed to a norm al single
time slot
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