This system means cellphone users pay for data not time
David Shapshak
The failure of wireless application protocol (WAP) has dented the confidence of cellphone users who thought they could get the Internet on their phones.
WAP promised a Web-like interface that would be ideal for small transactions and ticket purchases and for accessing information, such as what film is showing where, the news and sports results.
However, it has failed to inspire the public’s faith because of the slow data speeds of the South African networks. Seeing WAP perform over a much faster network, such as through Bluetooth in the offices of the wireless technology pioneers Red-M, demonstrates what it should be: a fast and nifty way of accessing a mobile Internet.
WAP may be something of a white elephant but Mike Myers, MD of Nokia South Africa, points out that it is just a stepping-stone technology.
“The big change that you are beginning to see is definitely the advent of multimedia. WAP is kinda the beginning of multimedia. People over-emphasised its importance. I view WAP as a platform for something else. On top of that architecture, you need to add GPRS [general packet radio service] and high speed.”
WAP will always suffer by comparison to that untold mobile success: Japan’s iMode, which has become the best-working example of the new means to access the Internet, while boosting revenue for the country’s largest cellular operator NTT DoCoMo.
IMode is a proprietary system. Individual phones carry no branding outside of iMode’s and the sites, while managed by content suppliers, are overseen by iMode and listed by them.
WAP managed to attract less than two million users in Europe and half a million in the United States by the end of last year, while iMode grabbed 16,5-million, gaining about 50 000 a day.
DoCoMo’s strategy is to outsource the content but maintain control. They provide the billing infrastructure and take a percentage of it.
This micro-billing mechanism is what is occupying the minds of the network’s brightest strategists. Providing content and services is certainly the key to capturing clients but how to charge them for what information they receive is paramount to making the service profitable.
The reason iMode has been more successful than WAP, says Steven Sidley, executive director of group sales at Prism Holdings, is because WAP is circuit switched, meaning users need to dial up to connect. IMode is packet-switched, so it is always connected and customers pay only for the packets of information they send or receive.
Currently South African cellphone users pay for the time they spend on their phones, while systems like iMode bill for the data they deliver. This is the key to the always-on promise of GPRS and 3G technologies. Your handset will always be connected to the mobile network, but you will only be billed for the data you send and receive, be it e-mail or picture messaging.
Many of these packets of information are pictures or icons, which are immensely popular. It’s no surprise then that other trends that will feature in the near future are multimedia messaging service (MMS), the big brother of text-based SMS once considered a white elephant itself and now one of the prime sources of revenue for GSM networks around the world.
SMS services were the fastest-growing mobile data services and worldwide SMS traffic amounted to 15-billion messages last December alone, says the GSM Association.
MMS will allow you to send pictures and small graphics instead of just text. Rudimentary forms of this are already available so you can send a picture of a cake instead of a text message on a friend’s birthday. Ultimately, you will be able to send a still digital photo or even a video clip but only when much faster connections are available.
However, part of iMode’s success is the fact that fewer people in Japan have computer access to the Internet, which is more costly than elsewhere. Services are built for the fun-loving youth and are entertainment orientated unlike the business-orientated services pioneered by WAP, says Sidley.
Consequently, the chat facilities are so well received. To this end Nokia will be releasing the 5510 that will turn heads with its unusual but practical configuration. It’s aimed squarely at the youth market, which is fond of text chatting, and so has the screen in the centre and two mini-keyboards on either side. This makes it much easier to thumb-type a message.
Yet to be addressed is how to use cellphones as some kind of electronic wallet. Buying from a vending machine is an oft-quoted example, where a user dials a number ascribed to the machine, chooses a cold drink and is billed through their phone bill.
“That killer app will be mobile payment rather than the mobile Internet/information-on-the-move type applications touted during the height of the WAP hype phenomenon, says Sidley, referring to mobile commerce, or m-commerce.