This article is a bit dated, but still relevant.
totaltele.com
Mobile & Satellite: WAP gets on starting block in United States
By Theresa Foley
22 May 2000
The WAP fever currently sweeping across Europe has yet to make an impact on North America.
Mobile operators in the United States have begun to roll out wireless application protocol services, but progress has been hindered by patchy technology in U.S. wireless networks and a lack of WAP-enabled handsets.
"One of the biggest issues is the lack of handsets in the hands of users.
Before mid-1999 there were no WAP handsets at all; Sprint PCS was the first to push WAP-type products. It's just very new," said Peter Friedland, senior analyst for wireless at investment bank W.R. Hambrecht in San Francisco.
However, operators and suppliers believe that the pieces are now coming together for WAP services to be delivered to U.S. mobile users, and are forecasting rapid growth in WAP services from this year.
"Next year, we'll see more explosive growth, going from zero to many millions of subscribers in the U.S. alone. We'll have ... more developer interest, more consumer awareness," said Greg Heumann, director of carrier marketing for Phone.com Inc., Palo Alto, California, which provides WAP-based software, servers and microbrowsers.
WAP-style services are now becoming available to U.S. users, but on a limited scale.
Customers of Sprint PCS, Kansas City, Missouri, which is considered to be the leading U.S. operator in the area of data delivery to mobiles, can now access WAP content with their mobile phones through Sprint's Wireless Web service. However, the handsets, which are supplied by at least 15 manufacturers, are still "pre-WAP" devices, and use the Handheld Devices Markup Language (HDML), a precursor to the Wireless Markup Language now used in WAP. According to a Sprint PCS spokeswoman, "It's not completely decided that [WAP] is where the industry is going. If that is decided, we will migrate to WAP."
Subscriber figures
The company does not release subscriber numbers, but another source estimated that Sprint PCS had 350,000-400,000 subscribers for its Wireless Web service at the end of the first quarter.
Nextel Communications Inc., Reston, Virginia, also launched its Nextel Online mobile Internet service in April. According to Ben Banta, Nextel vice president for corporate communications, around 2 million Motorola WAP-enabled phones have been sold since last June, but it is too early to say how many of those buyers have signed on for the Online service, which is mainly targeted at the business market.
In addition, AT&T Wireless, operating on a packet-switched CDPD (cellular digital packet data) network, has rolled out a business product for WAP, but has not yet launched its consumer offering.
One of the key issues in the United States is that unlike in Europe with GSM, there is no single wireless network. Sprint, for example, provides WAP services over its circuit-switched CDMA network, whereas Nextel uses its IDN (Integrated Digitally enhanced Network) packet-switched network.
Reasonably priced
However, Hambrecht's Friedland said the different network technologies in the United States is not an obstacle. "If the consumer sees something reasonably priced, that is being promoted, he will try it." The Sprint wireless offering, however, was $9.95 a month for 50 minutes, plus a 39 cent per-minute charge, which Friedland said was "expensive, and not the best way to encourage rapid adoption. But "since the service launch, Sprint has "lowered the bar and is, in some cases, offering free wireless Web," added Friedland.
The lack of true WAP-enabled handsets is now being addressed. For example, Sweden's L.M. Ericsson AB is rolling out a pre-WAP phone, the R280, in the United States in May and plans to introduce three models of WAP mobile phones in the second and third quarters.
According to the Yankee Group, of Boston, Massachusetts, more than 52 million WAP handsets and other devices will be available in the United States by 2004. |
