GPRS Speeds Up in Malta

Mobile surfing on the Internet with Vodafone Malta is now quicker than ever after the company implemented a server based compression technology. The main reason for the significant increase in speed is a reduction of the data volume transferred. This is achieved in a number of ways: the biggest part is due to the compression of HTML, text and Word Documents; as well as picture files (JPEG/GIF), retrieved via Moreover, Vodafone also optimises the standard hypertext transmission protocol (HTTP). This leads to the pages being displayed far more quickly.

"Vodafone is the first network operator in Malta to use high performance technology for mobile data transmission today. Our customers benefit in two ways at once: Internet pages are displayed a lot more quickly and the data volume transmitted is reduced," said Mr Joseph C. Grioli, Managing Director of Vodafone Malta Ltd.

This high performance technology is available to all Vodafone customers using the GPRS Internet APN. The optimisation is carried out while downloading the Internet web pages as soon as a GPRS connection is setup. Changes to the user system setup are not required.

Mobile Connect Card customers can obtain additional benefit by installing the 'Optimisation Client'. This is a piece of software provided free of charge on the Vodafone Mobile Connect Card CD. The 'Optimisation Client' performs socket-level compression of all TCP traffic to and from the laptop, transparently to the user. Hence, the overall level of user data compression will increase, decreasing the data volume, resulting in a faster service.

GPRS is currently available for free. This is a limited time offer applicable only to Vodafone Malta customers when in Malta."

Posted to the site on 21st July 2003