Concert introduces GPRS roaming solution

(Telephony) Concert, the joint venture between AT&T and British Telecom, has introduced its Concert Roam GPRS (general packet radio service), a 2.5G mobile service that is designed to let GPRS handset users access their e-mail and the Internet, as well as their corporate intranet and local area network, while traveling internationally.

According to Concert, customers of carriers utilizing the Roam GPRS service can roam using their mobile handsets at speeds up to five times faster than the speed offered by handsets based on the GSM (global system for mobile communications) standard.

The service is currently available, with about 80 GRX (GPRS Roaming eXchange) points of presence in 30 countries scattered across Europe, Asia-Pacific, North America and Latin America. Concert expects to increase availability through peering agreements with other GRX operators, possibly including Sonera, Comfone and Telnor.

The introduction of a GPRS roaming service is a positive and necessary stage in the development of 2.5G mobile services, according to Phil Marshall, senior analyst with The Yankee Group.

“In terms of GPRS, it’s critical that you have roaming capabilities so that the subscribers are able to maintain the functionality that they have in their home networks when they are roaming in other regions,” he explained. “This is a very good step in that direction.

However, Marshall added that it might take some time for GPRS roaming to reach its full potential.

“There is still the need to establish the standard roaming agreements between the operators, and then to provide the GRX functionality to enable GPRS roaming,” he said. “It’s important that those roaming agreements be established in the same way they are for GSM.”

Marshall also believes that the introduction of Roam GPRS reflects well on Concert, though it too may have some distance to go before it begins to realize the potential envisioned for it when it was created a little more than a year ago.

“The significance is that Concert is taking a lead role in terms of the migration from GSM towards GPRS,” he explained. “However, at this stage, given the problems they have been having with their business, that in itself is not going to be the sole [answer] to solving all their problems. It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s not a resolution.”