Wap - the wireless application propaganda?

The internet on your mobile phone. That's what all the adverts are promising these days and, in theory, it sounds pretty tempting. After all, why bother accessing the internet with a desk-bound PC when you could have it in the palm of your hand any time, any place, anywhere?

The answer is simple: your PC may be desk-bound but it's got a nice big colour screen, sophisticated browsing software, easy to use mouse and keyboard, mains electricity and - although you may often curse it - relatively fast communication links.

In comparison, your mobile phone suffers from a tiny black and white screen, a limited keyboard and data communications that currently run at one quarter that of an average modem, not to mention variable network coverage.

Clearly, the internet on a mobile phone is going to be a very different experience to going online with your PC. Until faster mobile communications and phones with high resolution colour screens become available, websites need to be almost entirely stripped down to plain text for successful delivery. This is essentially the concept behind the wireless application protocol, or Wap for short - the technology that brings the internet, or at least some of it, to your mobile phone.

Wap's it all about?
Wap was developed to overcome the limitations of delivering and interacting with internet-based content on mobile phones. The wireless mark-up language was also developed to write special Wap sites.

To access Wap sites, you'll need a Wap micro-browser which is most commonly available on Wap-enabled mobile phones. The first of these was the Nokia 7110, although Wap models are now available from almost every phone manufacturer, with no fewer than 70 per cent of all new handsets expected to support the protocol by the end of this year. Sadly, unlike PCs you can't just download a micro-browser onto your phone. If you're currently Wap-less then you'll have to buy a new phone, although remember that this upgrade will probably get you a smaller, lighter model with a superior battery life.

New Wap phones are normally sold pre-configured to access the network operator's own mobile internet services. Remember that until new network services arrive that allow us to be permanently connected to the internet, you'll be dialling a number costing around 5p per minute which may or may not come out of standard minutes depending on your subscription. Note that BT Cellnet offers pre-pay Wap packages which the other networks are sure to follow.

Wap site-seeing
While Wap can deliver basic graphics, these are limited by what a mobile phone's screen can display and by slow data communications. Most Wap sites, therefore, consist of just simple text. Words which link to another page become highlighted as you move the phone's cursor over them, and a single click takes you to the new information.

OK, so it's hardly as exciting as browsing the web on a PC, but it's still useful. Text is more than adequate for checking your bank balance, ordering a ticket or keeping up to date with news, sport, and financial and weather reports, for example.

Unsurprisingly, this is precisely what the mobile networks are currently offering. Orange is typical, dealing with ITN, the Press Association and Thompson Directories. For independent news, the BBC's Wap site is an excellent place to start. If you're into IT, then check out vnunet.com's very own Wap content for the hottest industry news as and when it happens.

Mobile banking is set to be a killer Wap service, allowing you to check your balance and make payments from the convenience of your phone. It's early days, but deals are already being made - Orange has signed up with NatWest, Vodafone with The Woolwich and Cellnet with The Halifax. So while an Orange subscription will be necessary to use all the features of an online NatWest account, for example, other mobile networks are still likely to be able to have some access to other banks' services - just like using an ATM that doesn't belong to your own bank.

Ticketing, shopping and even auctions could end up being big for Wap too, with both Loot and Lastminute.com having sites tailored towards mobile users. Citikey claims to be the world's first mobile city guide, with personalised maps and services delivered to Wap phones and numerous personal digital assistants, and Mapquest offers local information and directions in a similar way.

Entertainment is already taking off for Wap. Forget playing Snake with the nearest person using an infrared equipped Nokia, and consider instead playing networked games online with your phone. Nokia recently announced its Mobile Entertainment Service for network operators which will let Wap phone users play games online and compare tournament scores with other users. Even Channel 4's voyeuristic Big Brother show has jumped on the bandwagon, with Wap phone users being able to vote out the person they find most annoying.

The drawbacks
But despite launching around Christmas last year, Wap is still very much in its infancy and much of the content has left users disappointed. In fact, many industry commentators are talking of a mobile internet backlash as disillusioned users struggle to find any Wap content that's particularly useful or lives up to the advertising.

One problem is that the difficulty of typing a web address using a mobile phone, and the occasional restrictions of closed gateways, make it difficult to access third-party sites.

While Wap's presentation bears little resemblance to a PC web browser, there are some unfortunate technical issues in common. You only have to use Wap for a short time before you discover sites that are unavailable or inoperative, and we even found some handsets crashing and requiring a power off/on to respond again.

Then there's the possible threat of competition as Wap isn't the only technology that can deliver suitable internet content to a mobile phone. NTT DoCoMo, Japan's biggest mobile network, is currently enjoying great success with its iMode service. One big selling point for content providers is that converting existing HTML web pages to iMode is apparently much easier than rewriting to Wap.

The success of iMode is also down to information being delivered to phones using a permanent, or 'always on', connection to the internet, thereby avoiding the need for a dial-up process.

We will soon enjoy similar connections in the UK with the arrival of GPRS (general packet radio service). Already announced by Cellnet, it is unlikely to become widely available until early next year, but instead of being charged by the second to make a connection, GPRS leaves you permanently connected and only charges you for data received. Most analysts believe Wap won't really take off until GPRS becomes widely available.

But NTT DoCoMo may have a UK presence within the next couple of years. It has partnerships and deals with TIW, the owner of the UK's fifth third-generation mobile phone network, which could mean the industry bypassing Wap in favour of iMode. Then again, the huge European mobile phone manufacturers are already committed to producing Wap-compatible handsets, so the technology is unlikely to go away.

The important thing to realise as a prospective Wap user, is not to expect a similar internet experience to that of using your PC. Compare it to listening to music: it sounds better on your hi-fi at home, but you'll accept a drop in quality in return for the convenience of listening in the car or on a personal stereo. Wap is about just that: getting basic but useful information wherever you are. Just don't expect any bells or whistles, that's all.