Mobile products concern Xircom Inc. introduced Wednesday a credit card-size General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) product for laptops, including Macs, that will provide wireless wide-area network connectivity.
The CreditCard GPRS, Type II PC card solution will provide “always on” wireless Internet and corporate network access from virtually any location, the company said. “We believe that Xircom’s CreditCard GPRS solution will have a dramatic impact on the way mobile professionals work and conduct business,” said Fred Kern, Xircom’s senior director of marketing.
Based on ‘2.5G’ wireless technology, Xircom’s solution provides continuous access to the Internet and corporate networks, creating the ability to receive real-time information. GPRS is a platform for wireless communications that uses packet-switched networks instead of traditional circuit-switched networks, which eliminates the need for call set-up time. GPRS supports bandwidth on demand and is suited for accessing real-time information such as corporate data, e-mail and the Internet.
The CreditCard GPRS will be available in the third quarter of 2001 and is expected to have a suggested retail price of approximately US$450.