The Wireless Application Protocol effort gained momentum last week at the GSM World Congress in
Cannes, France, with several Global System for Mobile communications carriers and handset manufacturers
announcing WAP-compatible products.
Nokia Corp. announced both a WAP-compatible handset and an agreement
with France Telecom Group to supply the carrier with an end-to-end WAP network solution, while Samsung
Electronics Company Ltd. said it has licensed Unwired Planet Inc.’s technology for upcoming WAP-enabled GSM
handsets.
France Telecom’s agreement with Nokia will extend WAP services to its Itineris customers, trials for
which will begin in April, the company said. Several hundred customers will be included in the trial. Initial services
will include weather, banking, news, highway and route information and directories. According to the companies,
France Telecom Mobiles will be the first operator in Europe to offer the WAP 1.0 standard.
Nokia will provide the
infrastructure platform, consisting of Nokia’s Internet Protocol portfolio-the IP440 and VPN200 firewall routers and the
Artus Messaging Platform and Nokia Access Router.
Nokia also will provide its just-announced 7110 media phone
handset, supporting WAP 1.0 as well. The 7110 is a dual-mode GSM handset that can access Internet-based text
information.
“We are starting the real convergence with mobile phones and the Internet in the launch of this
project,” said Didier Quillot, commercial director at France Telecom Mobiles, in a press release. “Nokia
has helped us to implement this service.”
Also announced at the conference was Unwired Planet’s agreement
to license its UP.Browser technology to Samsung Electronics. Under the agreement, Samsung will integrate the
UP.Browser in its SGH-800 series handset, unveiled at the conference. The new phone features an eight-line liquid
crystal display screen and navigational keypad, compliant with GSM Phase II specification. It also has built-in personal
information management software, such as contact lists and calender information.
Samsung said it expects to begin
operator trials of the handset with the integrated UP.Browser technology in the second quarter. Nokia has been
conducting interoperability tests with Unwired Planet to ensure its WAP network will be compatible with phones using
the UP.Browser, such as the SGH-800.
