Hi has anyone used or seen the new i-mode phones/service in Taiwan? How do they compare to PHS or GPRS or phones services? Thanks.
Hi:
The PHS service is only provided in Great Taipei, but the i-Mode and GPRS are provided islandwide,
their access speed is faster than PHS
The i-Mode has built-in browser in the handset and the GPRS use the same technology like WAP just that it’s now faster compared to existing GSM
Depending on your need, you can choose the service you want, if you only need check email and you’re always around Taipei area, PHS should be your best choice, if you are high tech fan, then you should try i-Mode, but if you are a frequent Internet mobile user you should choose GPRS, which allow you to do roaming among different operators, not only islandwide, but also worldwide
Personally, I’d try PHS first and wait for 3G on next year
Cheers,
You forgot to mention that PHS has to dial a number to access the internet and you are charged a per minute or per second fee, where GPRS whether through Hinet(eMome), FarEastone(I-Mode) or Online is always on and is billed at a rate based on the amount of things you download. So for example, I can be online all day checking my email and I won’t have to pay until I actually get an email, likewise, if you are reading a website and you download the first page, you are not being charged as you read it, until you download the second page.
Finally, GPRS phones sometimes have more features for connectivity like Bluetooth which allows your phone to be in the glove compartment of your car or your girlfriend’s back pocket and you can access the internet on your Bluetooth enabled PDA which would communicate with the phone up to 10 meters away.
On the otherhand PHS phones are super light can also connect to your notebook or PDA via wires and their batteries last forever. They are also cheaper than any other mobile services in Taipei as a per unit fee for local calls, but as mentioned above, they only work in Taipei and many parts of Taipei county.
So i-mode is the same as GPRS? So which one would you guys recommend, and are there othere services that you should stay away from? (including all mobile services in taiwan)
Maybe this thread and the other one can get merged. Bumped it cause it has some nice info about PHS.
So i-mode is the same as GPRS?
Nope.
GPRS is just a technology used for packet data transfer to GSM mobiles, you can pretty much run any kind of application over it, email, web-browsing, streaming etc.
However you need to connect a laptop or other data capable equipment (Palm-top) to it which will run the actual application and display whatever it is you want to see.
I-Mode is a service which runs over GPRS. Needs a compatible handphone though, i.e. the difference is that you do not need a laptop or other equipment but can use the phone itself to display the application / data.
The i-Mode has built-in browser in the handset and the GPRS use the same technology like WAP just that it’s now faster compared to existing GSM
I beg to differ. WAP is not based on the same technology as GPRS, in fact WAP has been there before GPRS. My handphone doesn’t support GPRS but I could use WAP if I wanted.
However, as with most data applications, you could also run WAP over GPRS. This will increase the speed and conserve resources on the network side.
Not sure which one will be cheaper as this depends on the charging structure of the operator.
Rascal, you seem to know this stuff. Question,
What has fastest internet connection PHS or GPRS?
I mean in general, I’ve read that GPRS can reach a higher speed, but that doesn’t mean it’s normally faster.
I’d like to settle a dispute with a friend of mine.
Thanks
Sorry, not familiar with PHS. It’s a Japanese standard and hence not that common outside of Japan.
GPRS offers around 13.4 Kbps (kilo bits per second) but the throughput can be increased by bundling several channels together. This has to be supported by the handphone however.
Thus the max. is - in theory - 171.2 Kbps though somewhere around 53.6 Kbps seems to be more likely what you can get in reality (i.e. not in the lab).
This link cellular.co.za/celltech.htm explains very briefly some of the cellular technologies (but wouldn’t answer your question). Strangly GPRS is not even listed there.
I second Milt’s proposal to merge this thread with the other one.
I’m a cellphone ignoramus. My girlfriend gave me a PHS phone - a Sanyo J89. I haven’t figured out all the functions yet.
You’re supposed to press the big buttons to turn it on. That looks like one of the ones that flips open when you do. Take the cover off first. Once you get used to handling them they’re pretty flexible and you can do pretty much anything you want with them.
Actually that looks like an old model. I have a new one that is more slimline, and has several ‘smart’ features too. It does a lot of things automatically, without me having to try and understand it, and I can use it for shopping lists etc. as well. It has a vibrating thingy for discreet use, plus I don’t have to pay by the minute when I’m using it.
The only drawback is that it slips into my pocket so easily. I have to keep my hand on it to keep track of it.
[quote=“miltownkid”]What has fastest internet connection PHS or GPRS?
[/quote]
PHS - 64 kps max.
GPRS is very expensive depending on what you want do. If you want to surf the web or download files, get PHS because its rate is by the minute and not by amount of data. If you are strictly an email user, then use GPRS since it is more convenient for the aforementioned reasons.
With PHS, I usually download my emails, then log-off and read them and type my replies off-line, then log-on again to upload. Same thing with websites: just go to the usually sites I frequent, download the interesting pages, then log-off. This way I don’t pay for the connection while I am idle This does get kind of annoying sometimes, especially if you just want to web surf for random stuff.
FYI.
Just got a new phone with GPRS? The sales lady said that browsing is free but you are charged for what you download. But in the net, everything is downloaded right?
So, is it worth it? What is your average bill? I have ADSL at home, use avant go to get my daily news fix on my PDA and I’m always near a ten dollar cafe… It would be usefull to pass the time on the bus though?
What do you use it for and how do you keep the costs down? For example, I’m on several mailing lists but I’d only want to see important mail while not at home and not pay for spam and otherthings.
Lastly, are there many pages formatted for the small screen?
[quote=“Taiwan_Student”]Just got a new phone with GPRS? The sales lady said that browsing is free but you are charged for what you download. But in the net, everything is downloaded right?
So, is it worth it? What is your average bill? I have ADSL at home, use avant go to get my daily news fix on my PDA and I’m always near a ten dollar cafe… It would be usefull to pass the time on the bus though?
What do you use it for and how do you keep the costs down? For example, I’m on several mailing lists but I’d only want to see important mail while not at home and not pay for spam and otherthings.
Lastly, are there many pages formatted for the small screen?[/quote]
I read the Taipeitimes.com and google things, check my email accounts, stock prices and the latest currency exchange rates on my phone all with GPRS anywhere in Taiwan where there is mobile phone coverage. FarEastone has a service whereby you pay NT$400 for unlimited GPRS downloading per month. You can pay a per KB basis, but it gets pricey. This way makes more sense for me.
That’s about what I’d use it for. Is that $400 + your phone service? My plan is also FarEastone. In my case, I will pay $400 a month for the first three months then it will go down in price. I better write them for clarification.
How do the web pages look? Do they have a special phone format? Are they pleasent to look at? Thanks again.
Hobart: I’m on Fareastone and just got a GPRS phone too, so this unlimited plan sounds great.
The salesperson said that most websites aren’t formatted for the phone. If that’s the case, how do you know if a website is OK? Is there a list of compatible websites? Or do you just do a lot of fancy scrolling around?taipeitimes.com is all very well but I don’t mind reading that off my PC rather than the much-smaller phone.
Is it worth downloading any software off the Internet for the phone?
What about the games, either off fetnet.net or the general Net?
I’ve heard that GPRS phones can succumb to viruses. Someone I know said he lost his phonebook that way. What kind of security have you got on yours?
I don’t have any security on my phone other than back up. If someone wants to steal my phone book, they can go ahead and do it. I don’t keep any vital secret information on my phone lest I lose it or it is stolen.
Regarding reading websites on your phone. Of course you can read the Taipeitimes on your PC, but I meant if you are and waiting for someone on the street, etc, open it up and check out what’s the latest news. Regarding reading websites on your phone, well it depends on which phone you have. I have the Sony Ericsson P900 smartphone or PDA phone with the Symbian OS. The screen is quite large. I highly recommend the Opera browser if you can install it on the phone you have. Yes many websites are not formatted properly and it doesn’t work. I only use it when I need too. When I am arguing with someone on the beach far from any PC, I can reference Google.com and prove my point. However, some websites work alright. Taipeitimes, use to work better until they changed the format recently. Still works though.
The cool thing about PHS is that they often run promotions where if you sign up during the promotion period, you have no monthly fee for life (actually, for as long as the company stays in business), and only pay for what you use.
The other neat things about PHS are that you can roam in Japan, and you can buy an NT$700 cable and hook it up to a notebook and get online.
The “gotchas” with PHS are:
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Sometimes calling landlines or other carrier’s GSM cellphones is kind of expensive. Possibly a retaliatory measure by the other carriers to keep PHS market penetration down despite no monthly fees.
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The service is only in the North, and on the West Coast, and only as far south as Hsinchu.
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Due to the nature of PHS’s base station design, you can’t sustain a signal when traveling above 90kph. To enable PHS to maintain a signal when traveling at those speeds would require more base stations than the company is willing to put in (or so I heard).
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If you don’t have Taiwanese citizenship, you can’t sign up for an account, you have to have someone with Taiwanese citizenship sign up for you in their name.
That said, for me, PHS isn’t a replacement for GSM, but, it is very convenient to have as a spare phone that you can loan friends and family when they visit. I also use the online capability quite frequently. In addition to the no monthly fee promotion, I also got a promotion where they throw in I think NT$100 or 100 minutes (can’t remember which) of free internet a month.
Hobart: I don’t think it was a matter of stealing the phonebook as in hacking of information.
What happened to the friend in question was that his phonebook first got messed up - all the names were linked to other people’s numbers. Then the number of entries in the phonebook got much shorter…I’m not sure what happened after that.
I’ve got a Sharp and don’t think it’s on Symbian. Your screen’s likely to be much larger than mine then, which could have implications on surfing.
Shimmers, Do you have the new Sharp GX30 witht he 1 megapixel camera?
Hobart:
Nope, I settled for the GX21 as it wasn’t as expensive and the picture quality still looked better than those on the OKWap and Nokia phones they showed me at the shop.
The colours were much better on the GX31 but if I want a really good picture I’d use my digicams. I can see why these new phones could start to eat into PDA share though, especially with the GPRS capability.
On the downside, it seems to be taking more clicks to do the same thing as on my basic Nokia.