Leading cellular network operator Vodacom is using its network to trial South Africa`s first live WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) portal. The portal was developed by iTouch Plc and uses WAP technology to provide wireless access to Internet-based information services via WAP-enabled cellphones.
"WAP is widely seen by analysts as the most significant development in mobile communications technology since the Internet," said Andrew Mthembu, Managing Director of Vodacom (Pty) Ltd.
The information services available include news, sport, weather, live share prices and entertainment. More will follow as the number of WAP cellphones in circulation grows. Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Vodafone, IBM, Palm Computing and other major companies have all made announcements in recent weeks relating to WAP developments.
Mr Mthembu said that WAP will result in cellular phones becoming the portable information devices of the future, meaning the convergence of the Internet and cellular will become a reality.
"Cellphone usage has exploded because people prefer contacting a person rather than a place. Similarly, WAP usage will rocket as information becomes independent of location," said Mr Mthembu.
The iTouch service uses a microbrowser, similar to a miniature version of the popular Internet Explorer currently used to surf the net, to display data on a screen slightly larger than the existing models.
"Our object is to take everything you have on your computer and make it mobile," said Avi Azulai, joint Managing Director of iTouch.
"WAP allows us to separate the content and only send to the mobile handset the information the user needs. The possibilities of WAP are enormous: you can discover the latest music hits, concert tickets can be bought, transactions carried out, the latest share and business information will be instantly available. Basically anything you do on the Internet can now be accessed via your WAP cellphone."
Compared to South Africa`s one million Internet users, over five million South Africans now have cellphones and that number is still growing rapidly. At present, few of those cellphones are WAP-enabled, but this will change rapidly over the next year as a new generation of phones hit the market. All the major cellphone manufacturers are now producing first generation WAP phones for the world market. WAP phones already on the market include the Nokia 7110, Siemens S25, Motorola P7389 and Ericsson R320 handsets.
WAP users are unlikely to browse from website to website as they do now on the Internet. The technology is designed to take information from sites, reformat it and transmit it over the more limited bandwidth available on mobile networks.
Although many companies have announced their intentions to enter the world`s hottest new market, not many services are currently up and running. For example, DoCoMo, the Japanese mobile operator, has teamed up with Microsoft to develop and market mobile services in Japan that would link a broad range of wireless terminals to corporate servers and the Internet. Similarly, Yahoo! And Mannesmann, the German mobile operator recently taken over by Vodacom`s overseas partner, Vodafone AirTouch Plc in the biggest take-over deal in history, have joined forces to deliver Internet services to WAP enabled phones.
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