Internet service provider (ISP) M-Web says it will launch its own Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) portal on 1 April. The service is intended to eventually encompass all services and information M-Web offers. Rival ISP Vodacom World Online and a partnership between the SABC and the Nokia RF Group have announced similar plans.
"We always said we wanted to be independent of the transmission device," says M-Web CEO Antonie Roux. "The slogan is 'M-Web anywhere`."
Immediate services will be limited, but M-Web plans to replicate all its content in WAP-friendly format in time. "We want to offer all kinds of mobile services," Roux says. One of the first planned is instant insurance quotes from a text system linked to call centre operators. "We can roll-out services very fast because of our existing infrastructure," he says. That includes e-commerce stores hosted on M-Web infrastructure.
The service will be open to the public, but M-Web subscribers will have the option of receiving their e-mail on their cellphones. The company says a large proportion of its subscribers have cellphones, and many are expected to replace their handsets with WAP phones in the near future.
M-Web has no revenue model for the service and Roux says advertising will be avoided while a user base is built up. But he says there are virtually no costs to recover. "We already had the e-commerce engine and support staff in place. The cost [of setting up the WAP service] was absolutely marginal, just about nothing." Running costs are expected to be equally low. "The goal is to have our services almost totally automated with no human intervention," he says.
Nasdaq-listed MIH, a subsidiary of the local MIH Holdings which is linked to the M-Web share, recently launched its first WAP portal in Thailand.
Estimates for the number of WAP phones in the country by year-end range from 100 000 to 750 000. More than 40 domains involving WAP have been registered in the .coza database, including several registered by M-Web.
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World Online to launch its WAP services
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MIH launches WAP in Asia
WAP is here, now
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