WAP Overview - Page 1 of 5	WAP Words

Before we go ahead and find out what is WAP, here is a quick answer to those who want to know if you can use your WAP phone to access the WAP services or accessing WAP sites. The answer is Yes and No. To access the WAP services, you will need DSTCom to have your data line enabled on your phone. As of 27th of November 2001, DSTCom does not yet open up the data line services to the public. But there are some "lucky" users who already have their data line enabled (which also allows you to connect your laptop or PDA to the Internet as well), can access the WAP or net without using your PC! Its the wireless world now! For those who do not yet has their data line enable (even if you own a Nokia 9210 or 7650, its 'useless'!), you are out of luck for mobile or PDA online accessing :(

For those who do not know what is WAP, here we go.

The newly-forged acronym Wap has come to signify the convergence of the two fastest growing technological phenomena of recent years: the internet and mobile telephony. Wap - or wireless application protocol - is simply an enabling technology, a set of rules for transforming internet information so that it can be displayed on the necessarily small screen of a mobile telephone or other portable device.

At the moment, however, it is the key to mobile information, mobile commerce and a broad range of internet services which can be delivered over the airwaves. It is the essential link between the internet on the desktop and the increasing capabilities of mobile phones, personal organisers and other wireless devices.

With the emergence within the next few years of next generation mobile phones - which will make possible the delivery of full-motion video images and high-fidelity sound over mobile networks - the technical significance of Wap may decline: mobile commerce and other forms of mobile interaction with the internet, however, will continue to grow in importance.

Many experts believe that m-commerce will prove to be the "killer application" that will drive growth in the mobile sector after the market for conventional voice calls has been saturated - a phenomenon that is likely within a few years in developed countries.

M-commerce is emerging more rapidly in Europe and in Asia, where mobile services are relatively advanced, than in the US where mobile telephony has only just begun to take off. With the advent of next generation services, however, it is likely that the US will have closed the gap within the next few years. What will consumers do with m-commerce? Everything from buying goods and services to downloading music and books and asking for stock quotes and geographic information. Online banking is a typical application. According to some estimates, the growth of mobile commerce will outstrip electronic commerce, nascent though that is, within three years.

By 2004, there could be more than 700m mobile commerce users. All the major telecoms manufacturers - with the world leaders Nokia of Finland, Motorola of the US and Ericsson of Sweden in the vanguard - are gearing up for this expected boom and have introduced or are about to introduce handsets with Wap capabilities.

These new handsets will need to have special capabilities. Using a Wap phone involves more than "cutting through the cord" as Ericsson observes. The content providers will know where their users are geographically and will be able to direct them to specific destinations - restaurants or theatres, for example. They will be able to carry out secure transactions. And, most important, because of the small screen, the information they display will be tailored to their users' specific requirements. So the leading operators, including the world's largest mobile telephone group, Vodafone AirTouch, are doing deals with content providers to ensure they have a rich menu of goods and services to offer consumers in the new m-world. This guide, the second of a series in which the FT examines ideas in business, looks at three stages in the development of mobile commerce. First, today's primitive but promising wireless services. Second, the emergence of transmission technologies which will make these services a practical proposition. And third, the advent of next generation services ushering in the new era of mobile business.

Wap is one of a number of curiously named new technologies that will underpin the convergence of mobile communications and the internet. Bluetooth, for example, a radio technology capable of connecting mobile phones with personal computers. Or general packet radio service (GPRS), which will deliver internet information to mobile phones many times faster than conventional GSM technology. Most experts believe that the introduction of GPRS later this year will be the turning point for mobile commerce. Early Wap services, for example BT Cellnet's Genie, delivered over GSM using short message service (SMS) technology, are too slow and cumbersome to be practical.

GPRS, however, will provide something close to the service which can be expected from next generation phones. It will make possible an "always on" service because it only uses the network when there is information to be sent. It will make the difference between a technical novelty and a service which will have customers saying to themselves: "I would really like to use this."

The evidence from Japan, in any case, is that customers are more than ready for m-commerce. NTT DoCoMo's recently launched i-Mode, a data communications service rather like Wap, has already signed up several million customers and is still growing rapidly.

Page 2 of 5 - Just What is WAP?