WHAT IS 2.5G OR GPRS?
GPRS is the standard generation launched after 2G and it is usually referred to as 2.5G. It fully means General Packet Radio Service.
It is a packet-switching communications protocol used to describe 2G systems that have implemented a packet-switched domain in addition to an existing circuit-switched domain.
Its data rates are around 56Kbps to 115Kbps.
GPRS OVERVIEW
GPRS uses Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) and Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) to transmit data over shared channels.
It enables an “always-on” internet access, multimedia messages, and lots of advanced phone features.
Plus, the introduction of packet-based routing enabled service providers to bill by the amount of data used as against the length of time a user was active.
A preferable feature that gives customers control over their own usage.
Prior to GPRS, there were two main protocols namely CSD (Circuit Switched Data) and HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit Switched Data).
Although GPRS offered a boost in efficiency over the previous data solutions of using modems and so on, they still worked in similar ways as calls were still billed by time instead data volume.
With the introduction of Packet-Switching, data delivery was best effort due to the fluctuations of latency and deliverability.
Q.O.S (Quality- of- Service) depended on how many users were connected on the network path at any given time hence, manageability was not particularly seamless.
FAST FACTS AND FEATURES OF 2.5G
- 2.5G also known as GPRS (General- Packet-Radio- Service) was first standardized and released by ETSI in 1993
- Packet Switching Technology was introduced which was a big difference from previous technologies.
- Information was divided into packets and all packets were sent to destinations in parallels
- The speeds on the 2.5G standard are 56Kbit/s to 114Kbit/s (Kilobits per second)
- Variations of the GPRS standard supported SMS-based mobile games, WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), and MMS (Multimedia message service) which gave users the ability to send exciting multimedia pictures pioneering the social media we enjoy today
- It supported IP (Internet Protocol) connection to the internet, allowing for web browsing
- In the GPRS architecture, mobile devices were equipped with the same technology as the network, gateway, and modems to connect to the World wide web
- The symbol for the GPRS network is the capital letter G
The last 2G standard was EDGE, commonly referred to as 2.75G.
It marked the evolution of GPRS to the EDGE network, which brought on a faster and improved data transmission rate compared to the previous standards.