Wap Phones - Wireless Application Protocol

What Is WAP?

WAP is a text-based version of the Internet that can be accessed via your mobile phone, personnel organiser or pager, providing they have the facility to do so. The text is in such format so that it can be accessed quickly from your phone. The whole WAP system is very basic at the moment and has the potential to become as fast growing and widely used as the Internet that we can access from a PC.

What does WAP consist of?

It is possible to send and receive E-mails via your phone and you will be alerted of them in the same way as a text message.

What information can you really receive via WAP?

All sorts of large international companies have partnered together to provide you with the very best of their Internet sites and bring it direct to you mobile phone. Mviva has links to companies such as The Guardian, Cartoon Network, Scene One, Abbey National, Sky Sports, Last Minute.Com, Yellow Pages and many more. All of these links will provide you with up to date information about the subject you are looking for.

How much does it cost to use WAP and buy a WAP phone?

The price of WAP phones has fallen incredibly due to their popularity over the past year. As long as the phone has WAP and is connected to one of the digital mobile networks then the calls are charged similar to that of a local call. Many networks have NET plans that involve free minutes to the WAP network or can be used as off peak voice calls. Even the Pay as You go call charges are very cheap starting at 10p a minute at all times with BT Cellnet. To buy a Pay as You Go mobile WAP phone they are selling for £19.99 at The Mobile Phone store so it is not as expensive as you may think to browse the web from your mobile phone.

What are the best ways to look around the WAP network?

Mviva is probably one of the best ways to start browsing the web via your phone. It can be accessed from any network or phone with WAP and you only pay for the cost of the mobile phone call at the standard network price while connected. Mviva has a variety of categories such as shopping, news, finance, fun, travel, entertainment and sport. All of these channels then have further links to useful information. There are search facilities available over the phone to help you find what you are looking for quickly.

Things you can do with WAP :

• Send and receive E-mails
• Get the latest sports results, lottery numbers, weather
• Play games online
• Check TV listings
• Find out your daily horoscopes
• Look to see what's on TV or Radio
• Check share prices
• Look up the latest chart news.

Many businesses are making their websites WAP compatible users, so that they can distribute their information to a wider audience.

Some say that WAP will be like the Internet in the nineties was and take off within the next decade to be as widely used as the Internet. This will probably happen however I still do not see how it is convenient to use such a small screen to find such a large amount of information conveniently.