Phone.com Inc.’s Unwired Universe conference attracted about 1,100 attendees from 29 countries, twice the number expected by conference planners.
The conference was designed to act as a meeting point for vendors, carriers and application developers interested in Wireless Application Protocol technology. Several WAP-related announcements were made at the show.
Perhaps the biggest newsmaker was Motorola Inc., which demonstrated its first WAP handset equipped with Phone.com’s UP.Browser microbrowser. The tri-band Global System for Mobile communications 1900 MHz phone meets WAP 1.1 specifications. With the microbrower, the phone can access e-mail and Internet-based information services. It also features certain voice-activation features, data transmission capability, an infrared wireless modem and an enhanced graphics display. The phone is expected to become commercially available in the fourth quarter.
Motorola said it plans to introduce WAP phones using the UP.Browser for other transmission technologies, like Code Division Multiple access, Time Division Multiple Access and integrated Digital Enhanced Network.
Also at the conference, Phone.com announced Telstra Corp. Ltd. licensed its UP.Link Server to implement WAP Internet services for mobile customers in Australia. Telstra runs both CDMA and GSM networks. Additionally, the company said GTE Wireless’ new wireless Internet, fax and e-mail services will be based on its UP.Link Server Suite technology.
Phone.com said its effort to extend the UP.Link Server Suite technology to include an over-the-air provisioning capability goes beyond its collaborative effort with Bell Atlantic Mobile. The company said the Mobile Management Architecture, as it is now called, will be compatible with all airlink protocols-including GSM, iDEN, TDMA and Personal Digital Cellular-and not just CDMA. Phone.com expects to include the MMA technology in products by the fourth quarter, when network trials are likely to begin.
Other events at the show included U.K. firm Peramon’s demonstration of its Lexicos personal information system, which uses Phone.com and WAP technology to allow users to manage e-mail from WAP-enabled phones. In addition, Traffic Station Inc. became a Phone.com Alliance member and said it launched WAP services.
In other WAP news, the WAP Forum named Gregory G. Williams its new chairman. Williams is the current vice president of wireless systems for SBC Technology Resources Inc. He replaces Chuck Parrish, vice president of Phone.com, who will remain on the board as vice chairman.
To expand participation in the group, the forum also created an associate member category for content and service providers, application developers, tool vendors and non-infrastructure industry suppliers.
