Africa's economic heritage is conducive to the successful roll-out of WAP services on the continent, which Siemens believes will enable vast numbers of African cellular users to leapfrog into the Internet Age.
Speaking at the Mobile Commerce World conference in Midrand, Gary Cousins of Siemens Telecommunications said that the very reasons cellular networks have been successful in Africa are the reasons that WAP can succeed in Africa.
"Cellular growth has been successful because radio (wireless) is able to easily and cost-effectively provide coverage in traditionally disadvantaged areas, and also because the prepaid cellular model allows financially disadvantaged people to transact in a "cash-like" system.
"Cellular networks have been successful because they quickly and effectively improved the communications infrastructure of Africa.
"WAP technology and the applications provided by WAP will allow African users to access information, transact electronically and conduct financial transactions without the need to travel to city areas," said Cousins.
For example, smart cards together with WAP banking services have huge potential to improve the lives of the poor, by providing decentralised banking services, cashless payment facilities and e-commerce applications.
One has only to consider the success of the community phone booth concept, to imagine the potential of community cashless ATM devices that could piggyback on the existing phoneshop network.
A device such as the recently released Siemens IC35 PDA (personal digital assistant) which has both a WAP browser and a smart card reader, could be installed into community phone booths. Users could then download money from a bank onto their smart cards and use the cards to pay for services, such as taxi fares. WAP will therefore allow smart cards finally to come into their own, Cousins believes.
So, in fact, WAP will enable rural dwellers access to city services, such as financial services, without having to travel into these city areas, hence providing location-independent services.
Cousins does however issue a note of warning: Despite the current hype about WAP, it will take a few years for WAP services to become available to the masses. The technology still has to be available for easy, "idiot-proof" use of the Internet via cellphone, and it is only with the advent of 3rd generation broadband technology that data transmission will reach the speeds needed for user-friendly applications.
Another inhibiting factor is cost, both with regard to WAP-enabled handsets, as well as billing structures. Cousins says "a whole paradigm shift" is needed in terms of pricing and billing issues for WAP services to be successful in the African market, as current data call costs will make WAP prohibitively expensive. The challenge for cellular operators is to move fast to reduce or eliminate the cost of access, and move towards charging for content, the trend set by the AOL and Time Warner merger.
The vision of WAP providing interconnectivity to the mass African market certainly will not materialise until these important issues are addressed.
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Siemens
The rollout of GSM cellular networks in Africa has been a phenomenal success, with currently more than 50 cellular operators servicing in excess of 6-million subscribers, of which 4-million are in South Africa.
The uptake of mobile telephony has exceeded all initial estimates, with subscriber growth for the whole of Africa forecast to reach 34-million by 2003. In South Africa, 10-million subscribers are forecast by 2005.
In South Africa, the average current connection rate ratios are 83% prepaid, and 17% subscription. Growth from 1997 to 1998 was dominated by prepaid service, which grew by 161%.
Siemens 2000 product range and facilities:
Setting the standard for mobile phones in 2000 Siemens Communications Devices will this year launch its strongest product range to date. The new products are technically innovative, stylish with cutting edge Internet facilities.
A total of four new products will be released including the C35i, S35i, M35i and the IC 35 Unifier.
Scheduled to go on sale this winter this latest offering from Siemens includes a sophisticated WAP phone aimed at the high-end business user (S35i), a stylish mid-range phone with WAP capability (C35i) and an extreme phone that is both water and shock resistant and also boasts WAP capability.
All cellular products include as standard intelligent typing[1], integrated silent alert, WAP 1.1 for accessing the Internet and a built in modem.
Added to this Siemens is also introducing its first ever mobile data product with office functions including an organiser, address book and notepad (IC35 - The Unifier).
The IC35 is also equipped for the future with capacity for data applications such as Smartcard and MultimediaCard^O allowing access to corporate directories, shopping cards, GPS maps, travel cards and much more. In addition, the IC35 will also come with SyncStation enabling it to interface with a PC for synchronisation with Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes. The IC35 is compatible with all cellular products.
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