FastMobile, an Illinois based mobile phone services company, has successfully completed a voice push-to-talk test between Chicago and London over GPRS on Symbian OS devices.
Using off-the-shelf Nokia 7650 and not-even-on-shelves-yet 3650 handsets with Symbian operating systems, FastMobile recently tested push-to-talk voice over conventional GSM/GPRS networks. A FastMobile server, located in suburban Chicago and untethered to any operator, routed the digitized voice and text conversations across the GSM/GPRS networks of US operator, T-Mobile, and UK operators, Orange and Vodafone.
The successful test was completed without requiring any special hardware to be added to the either the mobile handset or the operators' networks, an saw group voice and text instant messages sent simultaneously among the participants using a FastMobile application running on Series 60 handsets from Nokia.
In the US, mobile phone operator Nextel has popularized cellular phone-based walkie-talkie services, particularly within the business segment. To date, such services are limited to Nextel customers and have a limited range - usually within the customer's home metropolitan area - although Nextel has recently announced that they have started rollout of a nationwide service, expected to be completed by the end of this year.
By the second quarter of 2003, FastMobile plans to commercialize the walkie-talkie feature into its fastxt mobile instant messaging service which is now available in the UK to Nokia 7650 owners, with versions planned for the Sony Ericsson P800, Motorola T720 and Sharp GX10. fastxt offers basic instant messaging and presence services, allowing subscribers to check the online status of friends and send them text messages either using fastxt's own protocol, Microsoft's Messenger protocol (the software is compatible with MSN Messenger) or plain SMS.
FastMobile is also planning to bring fastxt and its whole suite of instant communications service to the US later this year.
damn that sounds cool, pity it will cost a bomb in the UK
1MB = �8
😞
Hmm yes :S
Here in Holland, 1mb = �10 😞
Here finland, unlimited = 16,65 eur 😃
It makes me sick that some countries have a working mobile infrastructure, and other just dont, if i was on the move a lot more often than i currently am, I would go crazy with the priceing structures with Orange UK, they leave no room for busineses to adopt new technology because of the excessive charging
I think things could be looking up here in the uk, oftel have ordered cuts of 40% to all 4 major phone company's pricing.
Hopefully this will include gprs
http://212.100.234.54/content/59/28968.html
Dont worry about the funky URL, its from theregister.co.uk
that was cross network calling and txt messageing, GPRS has never been metioned.
damn OFTEL, take forever to actually get round to doin anything
Hey um dunno where in holland u are but my gprs rate is 1 mb for €1,50
I'm sorry, but i couldnt work out what that was supposed to be. Could you repost the price please
thanks
Eck
What is the gprs rate in turkey?
Gahh... don't get me started on GPRS charges here in the UK, other than to say the Orange deals are... ummm.... a tad expensive!!! :evil:
Having said that, it's nice to have FREE MMS until the end of Feb.... Obviously the idea here is that all the UK operators want us hooked on sending piccies and the like to our friends, then STIFF US ROTTEN charging us 30 or 40p per MMS thereafter...
PFFFFTT!! I say, make hay while the sun shines, cuz, come March, MMS in the UK will drop dead, unless of course they do something about the pricing...
Don't get me wrong, I've mentioned pricing issues in the past on AAS, and I'm not expecting everything for free, just a fair price...
Take your plain old vanillla SMS... 160 characters, that take a lil while to compose (even if you are adept on the old keypad with T9 enabled) and the average charge in the UK per SMS is 6 or 7p... How long does it take to transmit an SMS over the network? 10 seconds absolute tops...
MMS being a lil different obviously takes that bit longer to setup the GPRS link to transmit the data, but to charge nearly 4 times the amount is rediculous.
Well, UK charges high on their services AT LEAST YOU HAVE THE SERVICE. For us here in Riyadh Saudi Arabia IT IS NOT AVAILABLE, even if it becomes available it would be surely affordable only to the elites of the elites. :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :robot:
sorry dunno what went wrong should be 1 euro 50 for 1 mb
[quote="Zippy172"]
Having said that, it's nice to have FREE MMS until the end of Feb.... Obviously the idea here is that all the UK operators want us hooked on sending piccies and the like to our friends, then STIFF US ROTTEN charging us 30 or 40p per MMS thereafter...
[/quote]
You mean when the servers can cope and you keep getting the damn thing retrying every 5 minutes until it fails.
As you said, it will drop dead come March.
heh... I hope it does! There was a report on www.theregister.co.uk today that Orange and O2 have signed an interoperator deal to allow MMS traffic... Pity it'll compound the problems Orange currently have delivering MMS as you say...
I fail to see the point when call charges are probley less even on VERY cheap GPRS tariffs [well there is GPRS Orange thing - �4 month thingy]
[quote="PURPLEMUSTANG"]What is the gprs rate in turkey?[/quote]
For 1KB = 1400TRL
For 1 Mb = 1433600TRL = 0.9� for TURKCELL pricing
TELSIM with GPRS is unlimited
AYCELL with GPRS is 5millionTRL/month = 3�/month
It looks like the pricing is the best in TURKEY... 8)