Hi
Have had a look into it, and GPRS is much more affordable, and capable than WAP .. I don't know of anybody offering any weather services as yet, and you are the first to ask.. last I heard, there was less than 15,000 GPRS subscribers in Australia, so still very early days for the technology here... from what I understand, it's a whole new network, so they need to role out new mobile phone towers? Would appreciate correcting if I've got this wrong...

Cheers .. Laurie

I'm no techo but I did look into this quite a bit. I access the SeaBreeze site via GPRS and it works well, and average cost to check the wind speed is under 40 cents. From my understanding you can get GPRS/WAP wherever you can get mobile coverage-and so far I've never had a problem anywhere unless SeaBreeze is offline.

From my understanding, WAP charges the user via time connected, whereas GPRS charges via Kb of data downloaded. The phone companies want us all to connect to GPRS and stay permanently connected so at any time you can see the current data - your phone will automatically keep updating. I just turn it on when I want the info then disconnect.

I contacted the Bureau of Meteorology and requested their forecasts be made available via WAP/GPRS. They replied that because they are a Govt Dept, they are unable to provide information to us taxpayers free if there are commercial providers providing the same service-apparently they can't give you something if a private concern is selling it to you. As there are a few people who will SMS you the weather forecasts (for an ongoing fee), so BOM won't provide. I replied that's nonsense because I can get the forecast for free off the net now, so why not get same forecast via WAP/GPRS ? No reply.

Anyway, your choices are to pay someone to SMS updated weather to you (expensive), or we all beg SeaBreeze to add the forecast to the WAP section. How about it Laurie - can it be done ?

Our current mobile network is like the old phone systems, where you establish a call to somewhere and you "occupy" a telephone line from your phone to the destination for the duration of the call, thus they charge for the length of time you occupy the line.

GPRS : there is "one big pipe" that everybody shares .. you don't occupy a physical line .. your info get's tossed into the pipe as you need data .. no need to "establish a call".. thus you only get charged for the data that travels down the pipe (just like the internet)

Hope I've added to the confusion for you

Re: WAP forecasts - it's possible & it's on the todo list...!

Sorry Laurie, but ...

From what you have said, your understanding is different to Grumpy's. That is, if I stay connected to GPRS, then I would only get charged when I choose to download a WAP page (eg Seebreeze); not each time the WAP page updates as Grumpy seems to say.

Anyway, if you need wind data when not at home or in the office, I would recommend connecting to GPRS as it is very handy.

By the way Laurie, do any of the mobile carrier's charges go to you, or do they swallow it all up? (You don't have to answer that question.) I hope that you get a slice!

jjd

I have found the holy grail - a local waters forecast via mobile phone GPRS.

I have a Telstra connected phone I bought off Telstra Direct (they send to you via courier) and when I go to the "Home" web page via GPRS, I get connected to Telstra.com. From here scroll down through the following screens: weather>weather report>WA>coastal>Jurien Bay-Mandurah. Also has other regions if you are travelling !

Glad you asked - made me take some time swimming around in the phone to find this site. Happy sailing.