MOSCOW-Russia’s biggest carrier Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) again delayed the launch of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) into commercial operation because of a lack of demand.
The carrier initially planned the launch for December 2000, but it has postponed it several times since then.
“We’ve been running GPRS trial operations for several months. As a result, we have concluded that the potential demand for the service does not allow [MTS] to develop it as a priority,” MTS spokeswoman Eva Prokofyeva said.
She said some 5,000 clients are now enjoying GPRS trial operation, and they are mostly corporate customers. No new date for the commercial launch was announced.
In contrast to MTS, second-biggest Russian carrier Vimpelcom (BeeLine) launched GPRS into commercial operation in April 2002.
The third Russian nationwide carrier, MegaFon, signed a contract with Nokia for delivery of GPRS equipment in the third quarter of 2002 for its northwestern branch in Russia. Besides, MegaFon signed a US$2 million contract with ECI Telecom for the construction of a high-speed fiber-optic network for GPRS development. The carrier plans to launch a trial network in St. Petersburg in the second quarter of 2003 and is to invest more than US$5 million in the GPRS project.
