I am seeking help understanding GPRS modems, in partcular as described by a patent. I am also seeking information regarding the earliest use of the patented technology. I am interested in input re my particular questions below and in talking to any experts offline. I need expert help.
Description of the patented invention:
The patent describes a way to connect a laptop computer to cell phone through the laptop’s modem in order to establish data service on a packet-switched connection like GPRS. This connection is accomplished by replacing the standard modem dialing string with an identifier for the type of data service and an identifier for the specific protocol.
For example, while a normal dialing command would ‘ATD8887958622’, the patent substitutes the identifier ‘*99#’ to indicate that a GPRS packet service connection is to be established and ‘1234’ to indicate that a specific Packet Data Protocol (PD) Context be used, such as X.25 or IP. Thus, the new command would be ‘ATD*99#1234’. The advantage of this technique is that existing software applications can be used because the dialing string is just being replaced.
In such an arrangement is the modem in the PC or in the cellphone?
Is this really the only method used to utilize a cellphone to connect to the Internet these days? Is this the method utilized when I hook my BlackBerry to my PC via USB to get Internet service?
All the instructions I see online seem to be using the *99# indicator; are these necessarily using the PC/modem/cellphone arrangement discussed in the patent? Or is there some other method for getting Internet service through the cellphones that does not involve going through a modem?
If there is another method, how prevelant is it? That is, are people really using the through-the-modem method still, or is that just a setup that is carried forward for backwards-compatibility with older hardware and is rarely used today?
Any help is much appreciated.
-Roger88
Description of the patented invention:
The patent describes a way to connect a laptop computer to cell phone through the laptop’s modem in order to establish data service on a packet-switched connection like GPRS. This connection is accomplished by replacing the standard modem dialing string with an identifier for the type of data service and an identifier for the specific protocol.
For example, while a normal dialing command would ‘ATD8887958622’, the patent substitutes the identifier ‘*99#’ to indicate that a GPRS packet service connection is to be established and ‘1234’ to indicate that a specific Packet Data Protocol (PD) Context be used, such as X.25 or IP. Thus, the new command would be ‘ATD*99#1234’. The advantage of this technique is that existing software applications can be used because the dialing string is just being replaced.
In such an arrangement is the modem in the PC or in the cellphone?
Is this really the only method used to utilize a cellphone to connect to the Internet these days? Is this the method utilized when I hook my BlackBerry to my PC via USB to get Internet service?
All the instructions I see online seem to be using the *99# indicator; are these necessarily using the PC/modem/cellphone arrangement discussed in the patent? Or is there some other method for getting Internet service through the cellphones that does not involve going through a modem?
If there is another method, how prevelant is it? That is, are people really using the through-the-modem method still, or is that just a setup that is carried forward for backwards-compatibility with older hardware and is rarely used today?
Any help is much appreciated.
-Roger88
