General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)

A system to improve the speed of the current mobile networks. GPRS offers an 'always on' connection to the Internet. GPRS is sometimes referred to as 2.5G as it lies in-between second-generation (2G) phones and third-generation (3G) phones.

GPRS, which supports a wide range of bandwidths is an efficient use of limited bandwidth and is particularly suited for sending and receiving small bursts of data, such as e-mail and Web browsing, as well as large volumes of data. The user is charged based on the volume of data they send and receive, not on how long they are online for. Around 1,000 WAP pages can be accessed for each megabyte (MB). Typical Internet download speeds are close to 30-60 Kbps. However, GPRS is being replaced by the much faster 3G technology.