Nov. 27, 2000

Acer Communications & Multimedia Inc. said Sunday that the firm will start mass production of GPRS ( general packet radio service ) mobile telephoines in the second half of 2001.

Acer will lead the production schedule in its GPRS mobile phones, compared with other local mobile phone counterparts in Taiwan. The firm will also debut its newly developed GPRS mobile phones with both MP3 and GPS functions in 2002.

Presently, most international mobile telephone companies such as Kyocera, Samsung, and Matsushita, have purchased their GSLM telecom protocol from software design firms, but Acer C&M is developing its own telecom protocol, with a local content rate in this regard of up to 95%. This expects to help the firm move up the introduction time of GPRS mobile phones in the international markets no later than the second quarter of 2001.