HELSINKI, Finland-Sonera Corp. said it will be the first operator in the Nordic countries to launch a GPRS network when its commercial service begins Dec. 11. Initial service will be in the Helsinki area, as well as Turku, Tampere and Oulu. Early next year, GPRS service will be available nationwide, Sonera said.
Portugal Telecom became Europe’s first carrier to launch GPRS service in November. The United Kingdom’s BT Cellnet and Germany’s T-Mobil offer limited GPRS service to small-scale commercial pilot subscribers.
Sonera said its GPRS service achieves a transmission rate of up to 100 kilobits per second. The first terminals entering the market can use a speed of around 20 kbps, it added.
Motorola Inc. is the only vendor currently selling GPRS handsets in Europe, with L.M. Ericsson expected to launch a GPRS phone in the United Kingdom by year’s end and Nokia to offer GPRS phones in the first half of 2001, according to a Reuters report.
The initial Sonera GPRS service will be charged at a fixed monthly rate, and Sonera will announce final GPRS prices in second-quarter 2001, it said.
GPRS technology eventually will allow carriers to charge users based on the amount of data sent and received or on the price of the service event.
