Orange to launch GPRS on time

Orange will start selling GPRS enabled handsets in the next couple of weeks, keeping to its schedule for the launch of the high-speed data service.

The company will sell a small range of phones, including the Motorola Timeport T260, offering WAP over GPRS, an Orange spokeswoman said.

As the first network to launch the much-criticised WAP services in the UK, Orange is keen to avoid a similar fiasco, so the service will be launched quietly.

A full-scale media jamboree next year will promote a new range of GPRS-enabled services, though the GPRS acronym will be kept out of the marketing and promotional material.

The spokeswoman said: "We don't launch technologies, we launch services."

Two Orange rivals, BT Cellnet and Vodafone, have already launched GPRS services for consumers and businesses.

Orange's GPRS network has been in place for some time, but the company has held back on a commercial launch.