What is GENERAL PACKET RADIO SERVICE (GPRS)

Communication technology based on Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard. Europe’s packet switched non-voice wireless data. Introduced in 2002, it transmits intermittent data transfer of about 500 octet size in short bursts. User is billed by data-sent amount, not for airtime. GPRS competes with GSM (with voice), and offers maximum speed of 115 kilobits per second (kb/s) and typical speed of 40 to 50 kb/s. This contrasts to the maximum GSM speed of 9.6 kb/s.