Europeans are already getting some useful information on their phones, and the phone makers and mobile-service providers are racing to market with more. The acronym of the hour is WAP, for wireless application protocol, a new mobile technology. Never mind how it works. What you need to know is that Nokia began shipping the first WAP-enabled phones to Europeans last week. Other manufacturers like Ericsson are following. Asia and North America will see mass deliveries of WAP phones within the next few months, too.
But the Europeans will get the hang of them faster. They’re already accustomed to sending e-mail over their phones, albeit a stripped-down version that doesn’t use the Internet. Their digital GSM standard (which became nearly universal in Europe while America plodded along with a patchwork of standards and systems that’s still 76 percent analog) makes it possible. Users of TIM, or Telecom Italia Mobile, Europe’s largest mobile service, send about 3 million messages a day. It’s quite a base for TIM– and other European mobile operators, such as Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobil, France Telecom, and Vodafone and Orange in Britain–to build on. Last week Telecom Italia president Roberto Colaninno announced his goal to lure a third of the Italian population onto the Internet–wirelessly.
For consumers, the journey could be a pleasant one–provided the WAP interface lives up to its promise. WAP’s basic function is to configure content from the Net in a manner appropriate to the smaller screens and keypads of mobile phones. John Jenson, a wireless analyst for Salomon Smith Barney, says that WAP will do for wireless data what Netscape did for Internet content over the PC. Jupiter Communications predicts that nearly 13 million people in Europe will regularly tap the Net via mobile phones by the year 2002.
Not surprisingly, the Scandinavians have taken the lead–they’ve already developed WAP services for travel bookings, banking, and movie-ticket purchasing. In Helsinki, police in test groups are using mobile handsets to check license-plate numbers, and ambulances are sending emergency rooms wireless info on a patient’s condition before they arrive at the hospital. The rest of Europe hasn’t quite reached the Finnish standard, but Italy, Germany and Britain are catching up. Users of Genie Internet, a BT Cellnet service, can get stock quotes and updates on cheap plane tickets. Nokia and Deutsche Bank have created the first WAP-based banking site in Germany. By next year, customers of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobil service will be able to walk into the 13th-century Gothic cathedral in Cologne, press a few buttons on their phone and get information that will guide them through the structure.
Mobile-service providers are even getting into the Internet service-provider and portal game. As the wireless market heats up, free Net access and customized WAP content will be a way for mobile services to distinguish themselves. D2 Mannesmann, T-Mobil’s main rival, has created the D2 WAP portal, a kind of mini Yahoo! that offers news, weather, traffic info, and hotel and restaurant tips. Orange, Vodafone, Omnitel, NetCom and One2One have announced similar services. And with the portals come e-commerce plays: Finland’s Sonera is working on secure mobile-payment systems.
Mobile providers aren’t going to challenge ISPs like Freeserve. Net access over PCs is also rising in Europe (and for that matter, plenty of Americans will use WAP). But free Net access and custom content from mobile providers will draw new users–and increase traffic. Right now, wireless data accounts for 1 percent or 2 percent of most providers’ business. In a few years, that number will likely increase to 20 percent. Graham Howe, the deputy CEO of Orange, says that ultimately, his company will get more of its business from data than from voice. “We shouldn’t even be calling it a mobile phone anymore,” he says. ‘We should call it a multimedia device."
Multimedia applications need speed. And that’s the next thing coming down the wireless pike. Right now, most wireless data are delivered at a slow 9.6 kilobits per second. But companies like Orange are launching higher-speed services that deliver up to 64 kilobits per second. And the development of third-generation (3G) wireless technology–the successor to GSM–is well underway. 3G, which would deliver data at a warp-speed 2 megabits per second, is expected to hit Europe by 2002. That’s when mobile videoconferencing and television over the phone may become practical. 3G is eagerly awaited by business travelers–and teens. Instead of just messaging their friends, kids in Rome will play Internet-based videogames with them–and they can do it without ever leaving the cafes.
