Internet Service Providers and WAP

An Internet Service Provider is a company that provides individual users and other companies access to the Internet. The Web server of an ISP hosts the Web pages of the users. This is called virtual hosting. By renting space on a Web server the users don't have to purchase and maintain their own Web server with a line to the Internet.

WAP makes it possible for people on the move to get access to the Internet. Considering the popularity of Internet services and the widespread usage of mobile phones, there is clearly a potential for WAP to become very popular. Internet Service Providers probably also want a piece of the cake. To be able to get a share of the WAP market, the Internet Service Providers must provide WML pages on their WWW servers, as well as HTML pages.

Because of the WAP standrard, different versions of the Web pages for mobile devices do not have to be designed for different devices. Storing a WML version of the pages are enough, because all the mobile devices supporting WAP understands WML.

New not yet existing services and applications will probably be developed for mobile equipment. These services will designed especially for mobile devices with small displays rather than for traditional big screen computers. There is a new market of WAP services, that the Internet Service Providers must support if they want to get a share of it. Today we use ISPs to get access to the Internet, but if the ISPs are not keeping up with the times and supporting WAP and WML, we might use some other way to access the new WAP services in the future.

Teleoperators are also interested in getting a piece of the cake. Teleoperators will probably provide users WAP services. Surfers of the Internet are not used to pay for information, but billing is always in the operators interest. Will the users be prepared to pay for the new WAP services?