Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)

The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum developed the de-facto world standards for wireless information and telephony services on digital mobile phone and other wireless terminals and has published an open, global wireless protocol specification based on existing Internet standards, such as XML and IP, for all wireless networks. WAS empowers mobile users of wireless devices to easily access live interactive information services and applications from the screens of mobile phones. Services and applications include email, customer care, call management, unified messaging, weather and traffic alerts, news, sports and information services, electronic commerce transactions and banking services, online address book and directory services as well as corporate intranet applications. WAP utilizes HTTP 1.1 Web servers to provide content on the Internet on Intranets, thereby leveraging existing application development methodologies and developer skill sets such as CGI, ASP, NSAPI, JAVA and Servlets. WAP defines XML (eXtensible Markup Language) syntax called WML (Wireless Markup Language). To leverage today’s extreme large market penetration of mobile devices, WML’s user interface components map well onto existing mobile phone user interfaces. This means end-users can immediately use WAP enabled mobile phones and services without re-education. WAP specifications enable products, which employ standard Internet technology to optimize content and airlink protocols to better suit the characteristics and limitations of existing and future wireless networks and devices.

My reaction to this forum is end users of WAP will benefit from easy, secure access to relevant Internet information and services such as unified messaging, banking, and entertainment through their mobile devices. Intranet information such as corporate databases can also be accessed via WAP technology. The Internet will set many of the trends in advance of WAP implementation.

I agree that the tremendous surge on interest and development in the areas of wireless data in recent times has caused worldwide operators, infrastructure and terminal manufacturers, and content developers to collaborate on an unprecedented scale, in an area notorious for the diversity of standards and protocols. The collaborative efforts of the WAP Forum have devised and continue to develop a set of protocols that provide a common environment for the development of advanced telephony services and Internet access for the wireless market.

WAP provides a markup language and a transport protocol that open the possibilities of the wireless environment and give players from all level of the industry the opportunity to access an untapped market that is still in its infancy. WAP is an enabling technology that , through gateway infrastructure deployed in mobile operator’s network, will bridge the gap between the mobile world and the Internet, bringing sophisticated solutions to mobile users, independent of the bearer and network.