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Recently Etisalat announced the availability of GPRS roaming Internet access for its mobile subscribers.
For those of you not up to speed GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is a high-speed internet service available for GSM mobile phones. Depending on the service provider and Mobile phone you have, you can expect speeds upto 44k which is not far off those which you get with a standard dial up modem.
The biggest advanced for the traveler in using GPRS is that you don’t need to remember or change telephone numbers for every location you go to. There is also no need for IPASS or GRIC type programs as GPRS always uses the same telephone number (its not really a telephone number) where ever you are. To use GPRS roaming you need to first setup your mobile phone with the GPRS server, details on how to do this are located at http://www.etisalat.ae/mnet, once you have this setup it’s a matter of setting your notebook or PDA to connect to your mobile phone, either with IR or Bluetooth as normal, to make a connection as normal, however the number set should be *99# no mater where you are.
Its highly recommended that you setup and test your GPRS before you leave the UAE, this way you have a much better chance of it working when you are abroad. For the service to work you will need to have a valid Mnet account with Etisalat and have subscribed to their GSM roaming service.
Also, GPRS is not available in all countries with all operators. Check with Etisalat for availability. When in a country that is listed, you need to be sure you are connected to the listed operator, this may require you going to the network settings of your phone and selecting the appropriate network. Note your phone may also switch back to another network should it loose the connection to the selected network. Something to keep an eye on. Also some phones may require to be turned off and back on after selected the correct network before GPRS will become available, you should be familiar with the GPRS icon on your mobile so you can know when this needs to be done.
Lastly, GPRS is not a fixed price and is not cheap. Etisalat says they just bill the amount charged by the network operator where you used the service (plus a service charge I expect). It is our experience however that these prices vary a lot and can get very expensive so be warned. A bonus however is that you don’t get charged by the time you are online, therefore you don’t need to rush your connections. You get charged instead by how much data you send and receive, as such you would be better off avoiding downloading messages you don’t need such as spam or large attachments, to do this use the message headers feature of your email program. When viewing Internet sites you can also reduce the amount of traffic you download by turning off the viewing of images in the browser (For Internet Explorer: Tools, Internet Options, Advanced, un-tick show images, play sounds, play videos).
Traveling Mobile Users should also see: Using WiFi when traveling.
Last Updated 5th Sept 2004.
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