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GPRS is a relatively new cell phone technology to connect you (and your computer) to the internet permanently and affordably.  Ideal for road warriors and as insurance against Telkom problems, but it also means millions more South Africans will have internet access.

You are welcome to forward this newsletter to friends or colleagues who might like to read it.
 

In fact, I'm almost sure that the internet lost a little bit of it's mystery while you read...and not even one reader complained about his head exploding.  This is gratifying.  All is going according to plan.  As the Borgs say in Star Trek: "Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated."

You are slowly but surely becoming a nerd.

I first noticed that the plan was working when I met a client of ours earlier in the week.  I tried to scare him by shooting a "SMTP" and "POP3" followed by a "service pack" and a "firewall" while we were talking.  He never blinked, and countered with a "XP SP2" without loosing a beat. 

Captain McNish is 82 years old.

You are next. 

To see how far gone you are, read the article about GPRS below.  If you find it interesting...you know what is happening to you...
 

The face of the SA web user:
A recent survey profiles web users in South Africa.  Amongst other things most web users do buy online and their average monthly household income is +- R 15K, 98% own cell phones and several other interesting facts...
     

 
"GPRS" a boring abbreviation don't you think?  "DataFast" or "BytesOnTheGo" sounds so much better.  Fortunately it is only the name of the technology that sounds boring.  GPRS allows you to connect to the internet via or with your cell phone...with a few very important differences.  Here is the story:

Recently all the cell phone providers in South Africa (MTN, Vodacom, Cell C) announced dramatic price reductions (up to 90%) on their GPRS offerings.  Instead of up to R 25.00 per Mb, all the local providers now offer GPRS services at around R 1.00 per Mb and less. (MTN offers a package of 1Gb for R 499.00 per month)

Ok, I know: you are not jumping up and down with joy yet, but read on...it you will have a grin on your face and a far-off look in your eyes before we are done:

GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) is a technology that allow cell phones to be connect to the internet - faster and cheaper than ever before.  In the good old days (six months ago), you could use your cell phone to connect your computer to the internet, but it was slow and expensive. 

Slow because typical connection speed ranged from 9.6 Kbps to about 28 kbps.  Expensive because you were charged for as long as you were connected - even if you did not send or receive a single bit of data for the 10 minutes you were staring at the screen.

Of course the ability to connect to the internet from just about anywhere (by using your cell phone) is pretty cool, but the shine wears of a bit when you receive your cellular bill at the end of the month.  Not to mention the fact that the internet connection is excruciating slow, leaving you a lot of time to ponder what you will have to flog at the pawn shop to afford the inevitable bill.

GPRS technology changes that on both counts:  Firstly,  it is a LOT faster.  In theory you can connect to the internet at speeds of up to 172 Kbps (about 44Kbps in practice in RSA). Secondly, it is a LOT cheaper than cell dialup calls:  On one hand you do not have to pay an ISP for an internet access account and on the other hand you only pay for the data you transfer - not for the length of time you stay online.

But it gets better:  Many (if not most) of the newer cell phones are not only GPRS compatible, but they also come with software (on the phone) that enables you to send and receive email and browse web sites!  No computer required!  And this is where things get really interesting: everybody with a capable cell phone is now a potential internet user, with an email address...and they are online permanently.

The older lot of us (those older than 25) still struggle to squeeze a rational message into the 160 characters required to send an SMS.  Given that an SMS sent from a mobile phone costs about R0.75 a shot, having a conversation can be pretty expensive.  With GPRS on the other hand, you can send the equivalent of about 4 500 SMS's by email instead (for the same price) ...and you can write proper English with complete sentences, punctuation - the works.

Practical use

I use a Nokia 6820 phone.  It's pretty cool and it does the job (as far as email and the web is concerned), but it is still a phone and not a computer; so I'll be the first to admit that using a cell phone is not exactly a productive way of conducting business...unless you are in a restaurant, car, top of a mountain or waiting at McDonalds.  The point is that sometimes it is just not practical (or cool) to whip out your laptop in the middle of dinner or in the car to check email.  At these times, a cell phone able to send and receive email can be a god-send.  (Of course there are millions of people who will never be able to afford a computer and they have no choice other than to use a cell phone as a "messaging device" as Nokia so cleverly puts it)

Like a knight of old, I feel "dressed" with my information age sword snugly in my pocket.  Perhaps deep down in my psyche I worry about business dragons that may suddenly appear in the dark at inconvenient times and places - spoiling for a good old fashioned slaying.

I will grant you that by the the norms of most normal people that might sound a bit sad, but I am an IT professional after all - we're allowed to be a bit weird...in fact, it's a job requirement.

More dragon slaying

For the more paranoid / mobile workaholics there is a much better solution than typing out a email with two thumbs on a keyboard the size of a midget stamp.  It is called the PDA, or Personal Digital Assistant.  These are palm size devices with larger and more usable keyboards, big display screens and lots of applications like fully functional email software, spreadsheets, word processors and so on.  They are expensive by PC standards (they start at about R 4000), but worth your weight in gold if you travel a lot or spend a lot of time out of your office.

These clever little things are literally a computer in your pocket, and with one of those it must be a very nasty dragon indeed to scare you...in fact, the dragon's mother in law might not even manage the feat.

PDA's have been around since the late 90's, but with the advent of GPRS they have become infinitely more useful and productive because you can now have your PDA connected to the internet permanently.  If it's on the web or in your email server, you can get a hold of it.  Immediately.  Where you are standing.  Imagine the benefit of checking your life insurance while you are queuing on the bridge for the bungee jump.

It was only a matter of time before someone realized the huge potential of cell phones with a permanent internet connection and PDA's - not soon after the Blackberry was conceived.  This device represents a near perfect marriage between a cell phone and a PDA...in other words, it is both a cell phone and a PDA.  Both MTN and Vodacom (in South Africa) supply Blackberries with very attractive price plans - complete with a GPRS connection.  This is one of the best business tools for mobile professionals I've seen in years.

It works at home and office too

As South African internet users, the number one public enemy is Telkom.  We love to hate them because they are extremely expensive, but most of all because we are powerless against them - if you don't like their prices or service...too sad, it's not like you can move to another operator.

Well, you can - at least in part.  By using your cell phone and a GPRS connection you can quickly and easily connect your laptop or home computer to the internet via the GPRS modem built into your phone.  This affords you the luxury of a mobile internet connection and the peace of mind that you will stay connected even if your Telkom line stops working for 4 or 5 hours when you can least afford it.

To be fair, a GPRS connection costs considerably more than a fixed modem or ADSL line - but for about R 100 per month, you have 100Mb of "emergency connectivity" at your disposal.  Think of it as an insurance premium to guarantee your business stays connected in the (inevitable) event of a Telkom line or connectivity failure.  (With the added bonus that your connection is portable...to the beach)

To connect your PC to the internet via GPRS is simple.  You need a GPRS capable cell phone, arrange with your cell provider to "switch on" GPRS by sending the setup info to your phone, and connect your phone to your computer - either via a cable supplied by the cell phone maker or BlueTooth (wireless).  Once this is done, you configure your PC to use the cell phone as a modem by installing the software provided by your cell phone manufacturer, and then tell your PC to dial *99#...10 seconds later you are online.

What does this mean for your business?

The same question was asked about telephones, fax machines, cell phones and the internet.  The answer was: you do your work faster, more efficiently and you can keep in contact with more people (customers).  Pretty standard answer.  Also pretty lame.

I think our new found connectivity to the rest of world is an opportunity.  The technology itself is not an advantage - how you use the opportunity is.  The fact is that you are able to work from anywhere at any time with this technology.  There are millions of new people you can contact and potential customers visiting your web site wanting to do business with you.

You have the blitz, the wood, the meat.  You have the matches. 

From where I'm standing, I smell a braai coming.:-)

Things to watch out for

No technology is perfect...at least not on earth.  Here are a few caveats you should be aware of:

- Data transfer is measured up and down, in other words the total of data sent and received.  Factor this into your budget.

- GPRS depends on the fact that you are within the coverage area of a GPRS capable cell tower

- GPRS works by using unused "slots" in normal cell phone voice conversations and it has a lower priority than voice.  This means that if your cell tower is very busy, your data connection speed will drop significantly.

The final analysis

GPRS is a viable and cost effective technology while we wait for the next generation cell phone networks (3G) to come on line.  In the mean time, it provides unprecedented mobility for professionals on the move.  It also allows people to use email and limited web functionality from their cell phones, bringing millions of people that cannot afford a computer into the internet age.

To activate GPRS on your phone or to find out if your phone is GPRS capable, phone your Cell phone provider.
 

At Cozahost we help small companies and professionals tame the internet so that they can concentrate on making money.  We take care of the technical stuff so that they can take care of business.  Here are some of our products and services:
 

 
Lawyers always rehearse trails and specifically cross-examining witnesses because it is important to always be prepared for the witness's answer so that you can lead them in a direction that supports your case.

In a small trail where everybody knows everybody, a trail just started.  The prosecuting attorney called his first witness to the stand.  She was a grandmotherly, elderly woman - neatly dressed in her best Sunday clothes, lace gloves and a pretty bonnet.

He approached her and asked, "Mrs. Jones, do you know me?"

She nodded, thought for a little while and responded, "Why, yes I do know you Mr. Williams."

Thinking a bit longer, she continued: I've known you since you were a young boy and frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs."

With a frown, she went on: "You think you're a big shot when you haven't the brains to realize you never will amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. So, yes, I know you."

The Lawyer was stunned.

It was not the answer he was expecting.  His mind racing to recover from this disaster, he landed on his feet:  he pointed across a room and asked, "Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?"

She again replied, "Why yes, I do."

The old lady cocked her head to one side and continued: "I've known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster too. He's lazy, bigoted and he has a drinking problem. He can't build a normal relationship with anyone and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state."

She shifted in her seat, grabbed her handbag tighter and went on: "...not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women, and one of them was your wife."

She concluded, "So, yes, I do know him."

The defense attorney looked as if he was having a heart attack.

Just then judge (who was obviously also a lawyer) hit his gavel and asked both counselors to approach the bench.

In a very quiet voice said, "If either of you bastards asks her if she knows me, I'll throw your sorry asses in jail for contempt."
 

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