One2One delays GPRS

NEWS Mobile provider One2One is delaying the rollout of its GPRS network until 2002. Harris Jones, the telco's CEO, said the company had chosen to delay its rollout of GPRS. Spokesman for One2One, Kevin Perlmutter, said: "We are not offering services at the moment because we feel the devices and applications currently available are not worthy of the potential of the technology." Giga Web's telecommunications analyst Bernt Ostergaard said the fourth largest telco in the UK was following the right agenda. One2One's customers are mainly consumers and GPRS is expected to appeal to businesses because of the high price, Ostergard said. Ostergard said: "If One2One waits six months it'll be behind the bigger guys and will lose leading edge customers, but that's a very small percentage of its base. "GPRS infrastructure providers will drop the price on GPRS networks when the big guys have completed their rollouts and handset prices will come down. One2One will be able to save money and rollout much quicker which is important as it's had the screws put on by Deutsche Telekom(its parent company)." Orange, a holder of one of the UK 3G licenses agreed with the One2One's GPRS timing. A spokeswoman for Orange said: "We haven't got handsets or services in a situation where it's worth doing a song and dance about it yet." The company expects GPRS take-up to grow in 2002.