Gprs & Gsm

[Nat]

Hi all

This is probably a silly question, but please be gentle with me after all am only a female and not meant to understand technology .

I'm having problems with my mobile (or it could just be me ). Just discovered I have an option on my phone that says "Pref. service". On my display I have TH GSM however this option thingy allows me to have both GSM and GPRS - can anyone explain what this all means? I clicked on it and know have 2 reception bars (well that's what I think they are). When I bought the sim card my deciding factor was price - (my logic) the more expensive the better it will be . I didn't get much help from the sales person, as had no idea what they were going on about. I know I sound really ditsy, but I'm not really this dumb - promise thanx

[phazey]

GSM is your usual phone signal network. You can use it for voice calls, SMS's (txt messaging) and WAP (very basic html pages) .

GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) is more data orientated. In Bangkok, there is a 43kbps GPRS carrier - allowing you to surf the web, chat, send MMS pictures (multimedia messaging service) stream audio/video and more. If you want to use it, i believe there is a page on the AIS website that will auto download the correct configuration for your phone. That is of course, if your carrier (AIS?) supports it. GPRS is also a good "last resort" data connection for laptops, alough i have only tried that with a bluetooth enabled phone and laptop.

hope this helps,

./P