Fri, Aug 18, 2000 page17

• Mobile Web access to get better, faster

  INTERNET PHONES Accessing the Web from mobile phones is about to become more convenient with the launch of the next generation of mobile Internet service

  • By Dan Nystedt / STAFF REPORTER
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  Most of Taiwan's major mobile phone service providers have announced plans to launch the next generation of mobile Internet service by the end of this year, and users of the current system couldn't be happier.

  Two of Taiwan's four mobile phone service companies, Far Eastone (遠傳), and KG Telecom (和信電), have announced plans to launch second generation mobile Internet services, dubbed GPRS, or General Packet Radio System, by the end of the third quarter of this year.

  GPRS is a wireless Internet standard developed in Europe for use on mobile phones and wireless Internet devices. According to Nokia and Ericsson, it is supposed to run at 115 kbps (kilobits per second), twice as fast as a 56k modem on a personal computer.

  The development of a commercially viable GPRS system for Taiwan comes as good news to consumers here who were reportedly unhappy with the first generation of mobile Internet, named WAP, or Wireless Application Protocol.

  According to National Securities (建弘證券) telecommunications industry analyst Nathan Lin (林宗賢) and ABN AMRO telecom analyst Jesse Wang, consumers in Taiwan became disillusioned by the wireless Web due to the slow speeds of clunky WAP phones, which ran at a dismal 9.6 kbps -- about as fast as a circa 1993 desktop computer. Both analysts believe that if GPRS is to succeed, it will have to show much better performance than its predecessor.

  The first company expected to formally launch GPRS mobile Internet service is KG Telecom, which completed all systems testing last April, becoming the first company in Asia to successfully test its GPRS capability, according to Nokia (諾基亞) officials.

  KG Telecom has moved so fast to get its GPRS system operational that some analysts questioned whether or not there will be GPRS-enabled phones available when the service is launched. Consumers will have to buy new handsets to access this next generation wireless Web, as current mobile phones and even WAP phones cannot be used with GPRS systems.

  According to KG Telecom president Jimmy Yau (邱明德), customers involved in the testing phase of his company's GPRS system used GPRS phones made by Mitsubishi and Motorola, but that Nokia and Ericsson would not have such handsets available until the first quarter of next year.

  Echoing the KG Telecom experience, Far EasTone president Joseph O'Konek said his company's GPRS system has been hindered only by a lack of GPRS enabled mobile phones available for consumers. He expects the service to begin running "late in the third quarter," but it could be up sooner if the proper handsets were available.

  In contrast to KG Telecom and Far Eastone, the nation's other two mobile phone service operators, Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信) and Taiwan Cellualar Corp (台灣大哥大), both expect to be testing their GPRS systems in September or later and are still unclear as to exactly when they will launch such services commercially. Spokespersons from both companies, however, believe the systems will be on line when GPRS-capable phones are available from Nokia and Ericsson, around the first quarter of 2001.

  The controversy surrounding the availability of handsets prompted ABN AMRO's Wang to suggest to consumers that they wait before buying new GPRS-enabled mobile phones. He said that after the WAP experience -- high prices and slow speeds -- the new wireless Web-savvy Taiwanese consumer "will not buy a handset until they know they can use it for a long time."
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