GPRS data become available on GSM

-- EDN, 1/6/2000

With third-generation cellular services still on the horizon, attention is turning to the options for extending the services, particularly data services, that companies can offer on Global System for Mobile communications (GSM). The wireless technologies group of Lucent Technologies is anticipating that general-packet radio services (GPRS) will become a widely deployed option. At the terminal end, a large market exists for replacement handsets to connections. Installed basestations' average age is low, and most are suitable for software upgrading to GPRS. Thus, the overall cost of deployment makes GPRS attractive. Following this thinking, Lucent offers a chip set that allows operation to the highest level (Class 18) of proposed service. The same chip set allows handset manufacturers to migrate to that point via Class 8 and Class 12 designs; Class 18 would require a significant infrastructure upgrade. Lucent's target is to enable equipment vendors to have handset designs ready in the second quarter of this year, using its Sceptre3 chip set and Optimay's (a software company that Lucent now owns) GPRS software stack; Optimay's Phase 2 GSM protocol stack will be ready in the first quarter for the Class 8 and in the second quarter for Class 12. Lucent offers a full development-support package, including a dual-band-handset reference design.

Lucent Technologies, +44 1344 865844, www.lucent.com.

—by Graham Prophet