GPRS system makes Latvia debut

Latvian mobile phone provider LMT earlier this month began offering free use of their expanding GPRS network, which will for the first time in Latvia allow users to access e-mail and the Internet on their phones.

For now the service is only available in Riga and Jurmala, but by this fall the upgraded network is expected to be available nationwide.

General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a network that is designed to carry data transmissions at a much higher rate than the current GSM system.

GPRS systems have been up and running in Scandinavia for about a year.

LMT's only competitor Tele2 is planning to debut their GPRS network nationwide later this summer, according to Tele2's managing director Bill Butler.

"We look at the demand from our customer base. So far we haven't seen any demand for GPRS," said Butler.

LMT officials say they have about 10,000 GPRS users so far and that the number is expected to grow rapidly.

Not every phone is capable of supporting GPRS. There are some eight different phone makers that produce GPRS-capable models sold in Latvia.