What is GPRS?
GPRS stands for General Packet Radio Service. This is a new bearer service for GSM that greatly improves and simplifies wireless access to packet data networks. It applies a packet radio principle to transfer data packets in an efficient way between mobile stations and external packet data networks. GPRS enabled networks are “always on”, which means there is no time delay in dialing up and establishing a connection to a data network.

About the Technology
GPRS introduced a packet  based air interface to the originally circuit-switched GSM network. This opened up the mobile user to data services like the internet. By the basic nature of packet-switched networks, multiple users can share a single channel, which saves network resources as compared to circuit-switched networks wherein a single channel is reserved for just a single user.

 
                                                                                                                             
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
To provide data services to users GPRS adds a few new components (SGSN, GGSN) to the GSM architecture. These new components, basically have to do with providing connectivity to data networks (e.g. the internet), routing this data traffic to the end user and the necessary billing function.

Services
As mentioned before, GPRS enabled users to avail of packet-based data services. These include services like e-mail, chat, file transfer, internet browsing, multimedia messaging and even location based services like GPS.
For further reference, Please visit www.gsmworld.com