Can someone tell me, what is GPRS and how does it work.

[JackTheTripper]

Am looking at getting my wife a PPC and she wants to be able to have access to her e-mail and the web at all times. We have 802.11b at home and at her work but we're wondering about out on the road.

Would GPRS work with an iPaq? Which ones?

Who offer it? How much does it cost?

Where can I get this/more info?

Thanks in advance.

I tried searching a little but didn't come up with anything helpful. Just looking for a simple explaination in laymans terms.

[bdegroodt]

GPRS is a "high speed" (cough cough) data connection type provided by GSM providers. Assuming you are in the US, ATT, Cingular & TMobile are your best options.

You have a couple of options for getting connected. iPAQs (Or for that matter, any PPC) that support BlueTooth are the cutting edge solutions as they allow you to connect to your mobile phone (Must also support BlueTooth) and make a data connection without physical connection.

The other option would be to use a cable like a Gomadic to connect physically to your PPC and your mobile phone.

You also have options on CDMA (Verizon/Sprint) to use the data connections from these providers as well. Although, I'm not aware of any carriers in the US that are CDMA and offer a BlueTooth enabled phone. You could use a Gomadic cable on that service though.

[Pony99CA]

GPRS is a "high speed" (cough cough) data connection type provided by GSM providers. Assuming you are in the US, ATT, Cingular & TMobile are your best options.

You have a couple of options for getting connected. iPAQs (Or for that matter, any PPC) that support BlueTooth are the cutting edge solutions as they allow you to connect to your mobile phone (Must also support BlueTooth) and make a data connection without physical connection.

The other option would be to use a cable like a Gomadic to connect physically to your PPC and your mobile phone.

You also have options on CDMA (Verizon/Sprint) to use the data connections from these providers as well. Although, I'm not aware of any carriers in the US that are CDMA and offer a BlueTooth enabled phone. You could use a Gomadic cable on that service though.
As Jack was asking about an iPAQ, you neglected to mention sleeve-based solutions. There are PC Card wireless modems. For example, check out the Sierra Wireless AirCards (http://www.sierrawireless.com/ProductsOrdering/pccards.asp).

There is also at least one CF card wireless modem (http://www.mobileplanet.com/private/pocketpcpassion/product.asp?cat_id=902&pf_id=MP730350&dept_id=4441&listing=1), which can be used in any Pocket PC with a CF slot or an iPAQ with a CF sleeve.

Steve

[bdegroodt]

^Good point Steve. Totally forgot about sleeves. I have a "must fit in pants pocket" rule so I rarely think of the sleeves.

[Pony99CA]

Totally forgot about sleeves. I have a "must fit in pants pocket" rule so I rarely think of the sleeves.
Well, I use an iHolster (http://www.iproductsonline.net) on my belt, which accommodates pretty much any sleeve. :-)

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

Well, I use an iHolster (http://www.iproductsonline.net) on my belt, which accommodates pretty much any sleeve. :-)
Of course, it's dangerous to iHolster a sleeved Pocket PC to your belt on the streets & subways in NYC. Especially during rush hour. ;)

Just a bit more trivia on GPRS: it stands for General Packet Radio Service, and is a overlay on GSM to support modem-speed wireless access. It can work with nearly every iPAQ. Cost varies widely, but for the most part most GPRS plans aren't unlimited; I pay $20 for 10MB, which is sufficient for my light browsing.

The key is to make sure the provider you pick works well in your area. All the GPRS in the world isn't useful if you can't get a decent signal with a GSM provider. CDMA is a worthwhile alternative, if it provides better reception in your area.

--janak

[PetiteFlower]

And what's the difference between GPRS and CDMA again?

[Janak Parekh]

And what's the difference between GPRS and CDMA again?
Well, first, GPRS and CDMA aren't equivalent. Let me give you too much of an answer, shall I? ;)

CDMA and TDMA are two different ways of multiplexing multiple calls in a fixed bandwidth of RF spectrum. CDMA stands for "code-division multiple access", which throws many packets in the air from different cell phones and sorts them out by a code attached to each packet, whereas TDMA stands for "time-division multiple access", which allocates each phone a predictable, but short, slot of time. It so turns out that CDMA is much more "spectrally efficient" than TDMA, since it's much better at compressing out situations where people don't talk or data doesn't flow (just stop throwing packets in the air, as opposed to having dedicated timeslices that exist whether or not you use them).

GSM is a consortium standard that currently uses a version of TDMA as its "air interface". It turns out that TDMA classically had no way of doing high-speed data transmission, so GPRS was built as an interim solution that sits on top of TDMA and provides a rudimentary packet layer on top of the time-multiplexed channel. Ultimately, GSM will adopt a form of CDMA, called "wideband CDMA", to support one solution to real high-speed data.

Now, the form of CDMA in the US is not wCDMA or any such GSM standard; it's a similar, but not identical, form called IS-95 CDMA, invented by Qualcomm. 1xRTT CDMA is the next version of IS-95 CDMA, that supports GPRS-like speeds; the next standard likely to be adopted is 1xEV-DV CDMA. These, known as a batch as "cdma2000", offer improvements on both voice and data services, as does wCDMA.

So, from a featureset standpoint, GPRS is roughly equivalent to 1xRTT CDMA data, GSM's TDMA is roughly equivalent to IS-95's CDMA, and wCDMA will compete against 1xEV-DV CDMA (cdma2000).

Is that confusing enough? ;) Because I have one more twist: AT&T's "legacy" network uses an old form of TDMA, less featureful than GSM's TDMA, called IS-136 TDMA. It has no provision for data services except analog calls, which are very slow.

--janak

[Abba Zabba]

I don't know but maybe his wife might just want an all in one deal instesd of having to carry around sleves all the time.

[bdegroodt]

I don't know but maybe his wife might just want an all in one deal instesd of having to carry around sleves all the time.

Good idea, but what about WiFi then? When I had my evil PPCPE, I don't recall having any sleeves/add ons available for WiFi...or anything for that matter. Has that changed? If not, that would mean connecting full time for all data via the mobile carrier and that's an expensive month.

[Kati Compton]

Poor Janak... After that big long explanation you guys are ignoring him.... :razzing:

[bdegroodt]

Poor Janak... After that big long explanation you guys are ignoring him.... :razzing:

Not ignoring. Always impressed with his explaination of the mobile world. That's why I prefaced my response with the part about the technical "stuff." I knew it would be Janak to the rescue. :rainbowafro:

[JackTheTripper]

Thanks for the info guys. I'll have to look into it. I don't think she really wants a sleeve so we'll probably end up getting her a ppc with CF built in. Also she doesn't want a ppc phone. Would rather keep them separate.

Janak, you said you pay about $20/month? Does that include checking e-mail and general light surfing? Her main point would be for e-mail. Her office mostly communicates that way. Also is it part of your mobile phone plan? If so, is it included in the price or an extra charge? Do they charge by the MB or..... eh, I should just get on their web sites now that I know who offers, huh? :p


Thanks.

[bdegroodt]

Thanks for the info guys. I'll have to look into it. I don't think she really wants a sleeve so we'll probably end up getting her a ppc with CF built in. Also she doesn't want a ppc phone. Would rather keep them separate.

Janak, you said you pay about $20/month? Does that include checking e-mail and general light surfing? Her main point would be for e-mail. Her office mostly communicates that way. Also is it part of your mobile phone plan? If so, is it included in the price or an extra charge? Do they charge by the MB or..... eh, I should just get on their web sites now that I know who offers, huh? :p


Thanks.

Janak and I use the same service, so I'll give you what I have. It's $20 for 10MB of data transfer (Web, Email etc.). Considering the average email is 10kb or less, it should be sufficient for a lot of emails over the course of a month. Web browsing is done through a proxy server, so it reduces the bandwidth used somewhat, but I'm not a big fan of surfing the net via GPRS because it's pretty slow (20Kbps is a fair average.).

On the sleeve issue, if you have a BT enabled phone, you won't need one. You wouldn't need a CF card slot if you used a Gomadic cable as it connects at the bottom of the phone & PPC.

One more thing regarding the Tmobile plan above and a nice package to think about is adding Tmobile's WiFi package to your GPRS/Voice plan. That would allow your wife to use WiFi in TM hotspots at a much faster data rate and save her bucket-o-megs from the GPRS plan for when she is truly remote.

I'm not sure if TM does data (GPRS) only plans. I've seen a mention of it before, but I'm not sure that would be a good option anyway. You would need either a PCMCIA sleeve or a CF GPRS/GSM card. You may as well get phone service out of the whole set up instead. Otherwise she'll be carrying a cell phone, a PPC, and a GPRS card and that would result in 2 different mobile bills.

Confused? :?

[JackTheTripper]

Confused? :?

Yes, thank you very much. :lol: :lol: :lol:

[JackTheTripper]

Firsto off, thanks for all the help.

Looking at Tmobile site now. Looks like there are a lot of hot spots at many Starbux here in San Jose. May still want to go with a GPRS solution but had a question...

On this page (http://www.t-mobile.com/hotspot/services_need.htm) they say...

When your device is wireless-enabled, you will need to set your SSID (or network identifier) to 'tmobile'. Refer to your wireless network card documentation for specific instructions on how to make this change, or visit customer support.

Does this mean both my wife and I can set up all our devices (2 lap tops and 2 PPC's) to use this plan?

Again, thanks so much. Trying to get this thing figured out so we can make a decision.

[bdegroodt]

Firsto off, thanks for all the help.

Looking at Tmobile site now. Looks like there are a lot of hot spots at many Starbux here in San Jose. May still want to go with a GPRS solution but had a question...

On this page (http://www.t-mobile.com/hotspot/services_need.htm) they say...

When your device is wireless-enabled, you will need to set your SSID (or network identifier) to 'tmobile'. Refer to your wireless network card documentation for specific instructions on how to make this change, or visit customer support.

Does this mean both my wife and I can set up all our devices (2 lap tops and 2 PPC's) to use this plan?

Again, thanks so much. Trying to get this thing figured out so we can make a decision.

That's an interesting question. I don't know how TM monitors multiple connections via the same account. I'm sure they do, but just as long as the both of you aren't connected at the same time, I don't think they would be able to tell.

[Steven Cedrone]

I'm sure they do, but just as long as the both of you aren't connected at the same time, I don't think they would be able to tell.

Unless they tie the account to a MAC address...

Steve

[bdegroodt]

I'm sure they do, but just as long as the both of you aren't connected at the same time, I don't think they would be able to tell.

Unless they tie the account to a MAC address...

Steve

Right. But that would only tell them it's a different connection, not that it's a different person.

I'm sure it's not acceptable to TM to do it. But how would they know it's a different person unless 2 people were logged in using the same credentials at the same time? As far as using multiple machines for their service, I'd hope they don't have a problem with me using my PPC one time and maybe my laptop the next time.

[JackTheTripper]

E-mailed them saying I have a lap top and a PPC. Let's see what they say.


Oh, another Q... the cards I see on different web sites, tmobile, sprint, that have the little antena.... is that for GPRS? Expensive little guys, ain't they?

[bdegroodt]

E-mailed them saying I have a lap top and a PPC. Let's see what they say.


Oh, another Q... the cards I see on different web sites, tmobile, sprint, that have the little antena.... is that for GPRS? Expensive little guys, ain't they?

Yes they are. And a lot of them don't have voice functions. That's why I prefer and use a phone and BT connection to my PPC. Much more capable and can be less expensive.