Mobile internet is more than WAP

According to major industry players at Mobile Internet2000 in Paris, network operators are misleading consumers by marketing WAP services as access to the internet from a phone.

WAP, claims Lisa Hook, senior vice president at AOL Wireless, is just a small part of the mobile internet movement and European operators should not limit these services to telephones.

Hook said: "When you pull people in and tell them they can get email on their mobile they love it, but when you call it mobile internet the disappointment is universal.

"We do not have the internet on mobiles. What we have are certain applications that port across the platform. The internet is a rich graphical interface with high speeds and great bandwidth. We do not program mobile devices as if we are in that environment and networks don't support it so we shouldn't market it that way. WAP is a tiny and harsh programming environment," Hook continued.

Ruth Brannvall, director of distribution at Yahoo, agreed, claiming European network operators spend too much time focusing on only one aspect of mobile internet.

"Mobile internet is not WAP. I don't believe in one device for everything and it is unwise to build your strategy from the web thinking it is only WAP," she said. "The mobile services we have are not good enough, they are stand-alone services and very few make any sense. Operators need to focus on selling services, not WAP products."

Alan Reiter, president of Wireless Internet, claimed European operators are hurting themselves by not offering different devices such as PDAs or pagers, and by setting false expectations.

However, Jane Zweig, senior analyst at Herschel Shosteck Associates, suggested operators are guilty of trying to control internet access through WAP portals.

Zweig said: "Vodafone's Chris Gent claimed he wanted to control the interface and control the user, but that is like spitting in the face of what the internet stands for. It is open and you choose sites you want to go to rather than portals your mobile phone operator dictates. The closed portal approach will not work."

She claimed content providers and network operators should stick to their core business. "The content business is not the operator business. Operators need to focus on open IP-based networks that allow the widest range of services. I doubt Vodafone can provide content and build an end user addiction. Accessing the internet from a mobile location is not only about telephones."