"WAP, Mobile Internet"

Intro: How would you like to pay for your hamburger at the drive through by pointing your mobile phone at the attendant, or tracking whose house the kid’s really are at after school, or by pressing a button and automatically have the Emergency Break Down Service find you. Using wireless communications is soon to become so commonplace it will make using your PC seem old hat!

The way we communicate has entered a new era of possibility and opportunity. Mobile phones and the Internet coming together. Its going to place of anytime, anywhere access. And right at the centre of this revolution is going to be the good old mobile phone.

We are going to use something called WAP to connect all of this together…you may have already seen the big Telco companies advertising this phenomenon (and probably wondered what on earth they were talking about). It allows mobile phone users to surf the Internet, do their shopping, organise their banking, and conduct e-commerce and about a million other unthought of things. If we are to believe the statistics it is spreading like wildfire all round the world.

As WAP matures, it will become such a part of our daily lives we will not be able to imagine life without it, but it’s going to take time before all of the teething problems are worked out."

1/ What is WAP?

Definition

The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a set of open, global protocols for developing applications and services that use wireless networks. (Explain protocol) A protocol is a definition for an application. The WAP protocols are mainly based on already existing Internet protocols, but are optimized for mobile users with wireless devices.

History

At the start phone companies all began developing standards independently of each other. Which meant only their systems could talk to each other. They realised it would make far more focus development around a common standard. Therefore the WAP Forum was formed so that a common protocol could be developed so we could all communicate with one another irregardless of the breed of our equipment.

In a broad, general view, there's not much difference between "the web" and WAP. Actually, WAP is just as much part of "the web" as your typical PC based browser such as Netscape and Internet Explorer. The difference between "the web" and WAP is of course that WAP is meant for wireless devices , including but not limited to mobile phones.

In the wireless environment everything is simpler and smaller. You have very narrow radio bandwidths, very little power from batteries to drive very small processors. Everything must be smaller and simpler.

Unfortunately the WAP concept is plagued by a lot of hype. WAP is very much in it's infancy, and expecting things that will blow your socks off today is probably going to end in disappointment. WAP is more or less at the evolutionary stage that "the web" was at about five years ago. In short, the limits of WAP today is plain text with some simple styling like bold and italics, but only on some devices. Black & White images on displays that are typical 100 by 40 pixels. No audio, and no fancy animations. But this is today, and many companies are working hard on exciting new technologies to make WAP as saucy as anything you can imagine.

2/ How Will WAP be Used?

Scenario No 1

Ready to head for Sydney, you quickly check e-mail on your Smartphone. You have a few e-mails - one updating the value of your share portfolio. Noting that you have made a healthy profit, you sell a quantity.

You leave home for a 9am meeting instructing your house alarm by your Smartphone to arm itself. In the car, using voice commands, your Smartphone PDA functions synchronises with your server at the office. It checks your calendar and reads out the day's appointments. Using voice commands, you tell your Smartphone to confirm appointments.

On your way, listening to the radio, you hear one of your favourite artist's new albums. You decide to buy it and instruct your Smartphone to download the album to its integrated Internet-Audio player and cruise along to your destination.

Uncertain of the location of the meeting, you pull over and request information on your current position, which appears on your Smartphone display. Next, you enter the destination address and are sent details of the quickest route that avoids a nasty traffic jam.

You park in a public garage to transmit an e-payment to the parking vending machine - again via your Smartphone.

Finally you are called to your meeting. Powering up your laptop you connect instantaneously via your Smartphone to your company Intranet and download the latest presentation and technical information for your meeting.

Scenario No 2

GoAmerica Communications have demonstrated a comparison shopping service that will invite users to scan in a product's UPC barcode to receive comparative pricing information. The service will also enable users to purchase goods through a wireless device, or receive information on where to purchase it locally.

The service will have information on up to 100 million consumer goods such as TVs, camcorders, books, videos, CDs, computer software and hardware, grocery items, and pharmaceuticals.

Scenario No 3

An indoor GPS system. By placing a number of wireless sensors in a building, a robot's or human's position can be pinpointed and the information used to guide them to their destination. The system could be useful to engineers trying to locate the vending machines or frustrated executives looking for their next meeting.

Scenario No 4

For those who want to manage household devices from a remote location, a technology that uses a standard email package such as Microsoft Outlook to control devices like a garage door or a video tape recorder.

Scenario No 5

The Lovegety is a wireless matchmaking device with three modes, depending on whether the user wants to talk, set up a date, or start a romance. Put a pair of matching Lovegeties in the same room, and they detect each other and spring to attention, facilitating a first contact.

"The technology will allow human beings to do what dogs do naturally," said Engelhardt, a master of metaphor. "It's a wireless butt sniffer."

We envision a future when cell phones become general-purpose Lovegeties, alerting people to all kinds of potential contacts. Users could be notified when friends are nearby; people with similar interests could be brought together at a business conference.

Scenario No 6

A GPS-powered location service like intelligent white and yellow pages that know where you are and act accordingly.

They have the ability to get local traffic reports and driving directions without having to enter a starting address. A movie service tells users what's on and when at local theaters, offering ticket purchase information and driving directions to the theater with the touch of a single button.

"Say you're a Lee Kernaghan fan. You want to be alerted the minute he comes to town and you want to be able to buy tickets immediately. You can do that,"

Scenario No 9

Security / Mbusiness

Grabbing a burger is getting easier. Soon you will just have to wave your cell phone as you pass McDonald's drive-through. Immediate gratification is always the best marketing tool.

Nokia (NOK) is testing a new SmartCover for its 5100 Series phones that will act just like a debit card. Tollbooth car tags and the ExxonMobile SpeedPass use the same technology and their users number in the millions.

3/ Is WAP More Secure Than The Web?

Shoppers on the net or on the move will soon be able to use their mobile phone to electronically sign the bills they run up in cyberspace.

Mobile Internet services are available for a minimal cost, but one that consumers are not hesitant to pay. The reason - security. Internet users have hesitated to pay for online purchases because of perceived security risks involved in providing credit card information. With mobile connections purchases could be added to the monthly phone bill, making the idea of ordering a pizza, paying for parking or booking a restaurant table on the phone more attractive.

However having said that, there are still considerable security issues to be addressed by the Telcos before this can become a reality

4/ Current Impediments to WAP!

Wireless devices tend to have very little real estate available for viewing content - often as small as 14x7 characters. Wireless devices also tend to be black and white, so images don't render well. There are no mice and the keyboards are difficult to use. Wireless devices tend to have limited CPU, memory, and battery life. Developers and designers need to find new, intuitive navigational techniques to overcome these constraints. Today the most common navigational technique on wireless is the list with drill-down capabilities, like current mobile phone menus.

The thought of experiencing the Web on a tiny screen, and of having to navigate or browse with tiny push buttons is a bit of a turn-off.

Bandwidth is probably the biggest issue

The current practice of repurposing Web content for smart phones and handhelds via technologies like the WAP (wireless access protocol) or Palm Computing's Web clipping won't ultimately be very successful.

Instead of simply dumping Web content into a horsepower-challenged device and expecting it to fly, the mobile has to be treated like a remote terminal that relies on a server to perform most of the computing. Otherwise, the only way that the system could work properly is if you had a very, very long extension lead!

Privacy

know where you were last month!: This is the down-side of some countries legislation requiring mobile phones to be able to tell Emergency operators the location of the caller.

Some think it is Ok for your location to be disclosed when you ask for directions or phone Emergency, because you are giving your permission. But others are not sure a parent should have the right to monitor their kids, or a wife to monitor her husband.

This ability has been exploited with great success in Japan, where parents are using phones' tracking capabilities to keep tabs on their kids by following the phone's movements through a Web site.

But the biggest hurdle may be psychological. Short Message Service (SMS), a mobile phone feature that enables users to send short text messages from one mobile phone to another, has been wildly popular in Australia and Europe for quite some time, but has yet to catch on in any capacity in the United States.

Americans are used to talking on the phone, not looking at it.

5/ Bluetooth, What is It?

There is a new technology about to come out which is called Blue Tooth. A radio technology built around a new chip that makes it possible to transmit signals over short distances between computers and handheld devices without the use of wires. Bluetooth.com

At home, your phone functions as a portable phone (fixed line charge). When you're on the move, it functions as a mobile phone (cellular charge). And when your phone comes within range of another mobile phone with built-in Bluetooth wireless technology it functions as a walkie talkie (no telephony charge).

All you have to do is plug the homebase station in the wall instead of your phone. There is no need for a telephone anymore, and you can replace your computer with a mobile laptop. The first Bluetooth device will work within approximately 10 metres of your wireless devices, but the next version may have a range of up to 100 metres if the frequencies can support it.

There is one other direction that mobile Internet connections may take, and that is voice recognition. Hands-free phone operation would be advantageous while driving a car, but would users want to voice their intentions when traveling on a bus or train?

6/ Can you watch TV on the Mobile Internet?

WAP.com went broadband surfing with Alcatel and got some idea of how a videophone will work in the future. It worked, but not like the high quality TV-quality many would expect.

7/ Some Interesting WAP stats!

Analysts are now saying that the mobile market, which covers applications, internet access, hardware and services, is likely to change the way in which we work and play - and sooner rather than later.

IDC predicts that every phone will be internet-enabled by 2001, and that there will be one billion mobile phone customers by 2003.

Capacity is doubling every six months. We are seeing Wide Area Network technology increasing by a factor of 64 in a couple of years, multimedia technology increasing by a factor of 100 in three years, and storage increasing by a factor of seven in two years."

About two thirds of Australians now have mobile phones, and the yanks are signing up new users at the rate of one every two seconds -- a year-on-year growth rate of 25 percent -- according to CTIA, the wireless industry's trade organization.

Arthur Hissey
Computer Research & Technology
www.crt.net.au