Go Mobile gearing up for launch of WAP and GPRS

by Franco Aloisio

Malta's upcoming second mobile telephony operator, Go Mobile, is gearing up for the launch of the latest technologies available in the field of WAP and GPRS.

Sources close to the company said Go Mobile's international partners, Nortel Networks, have recently licensed another international firm - Objective Systems Integrators (OSI) to support the implementation of a GSM (global system for mobile communications) system in Malta. OSI is a world-leading provider of eBusiness infrastructure software solutions.

OSI's software, which is part of Nortel Networks' state-of-the-art GSM operations support system (OSS), will also manage Go Mobile's GPRS (general packet radio service) network, the data overlay for GSM networks enabling wireless connectivity to the Internet and wireless application protocol (WAP) server.

Nortel Networks will provide Go Mobile with a nationwide GSM digital wireless network consisting of mobile switching, radio equipment, WAP platform and services, and an intelligent network platform.

OSI's software will provide not only service assurance, but will also integrate other software products in a GSM OSS solution, offering service providers a single system to manage both voice and data networks. Because OSI's products are based on the company's Unified Management Architecture, network operators can rapidly deploy management systems for multivendor, multidomain services and networks.

Nortel Networks will provide Go Mobile with a GSM digital wireless network built to provide a variety of wireless voice and data services to its subscribers as well as a GPRS network and radio infrastructure. With this new-

generation infrastructure in place, Go Mobile subscribers will be able to make voice calls as well as conduct mobile web-based tasks such as sending and receiving email or accessing corporate intranets and extranets.