What is WAP?

My name is Burton Katz, I'm the President of Buongiorno, USA operations. Today I'm here to talk about what is WAP.

Well, what does WAP stand for? Wireless Application Protocol. Essentially, what Wireless Application Protocol does is allow you to access as a user the fixed Internet on your cellular phone. So in practical terms how does it work? Well first you have a user who has a cell phone. That user makes a request to his Internet service provider. The Internet service provider just happens to be someone different. He's called your Telco. Then the Internet service provider sends that request to what is called the WAP gateway, and then that WAP gateway sends on a request to what's commonly known everywhere in the Internet world as the web server to serve the information and send it all the way back to the user.

The most important part of this entire process is all what happens here at the WAP Gateway. Essentially, three primary activities happen. Number one, is we are able to detect the end user device that you're accessing the Internet from. Remember there's thousands of devices out there in the market with thousands of different types of screens on there, so I've got to get that presentation perfectly correct and here's where by detecting your device I know exactly how to present that to your device. Number two, is I actually then detect the capability of your devices as far as what type of product that you can actually buy. Some phones maybe only able to access polyphonic ring tones. Some could actually access real tones. What happens at the WAP Gateway allows me to recognize that and the third point is the MSISDN. In layman's terms, that means your phone number. Essentially by capturing the phone number, the telecom operator here is able to allow you to purchase a product with one click by and authenticate you just by knowing your phone number.

Why is all this important? Why is it only going to become more important? Because three major reasons, cellular networks are becoming faster by the day. Number two, actually the screens of cell phones are becoming more colorful, allowing you to do and access many more things. And number three is, you have more compelling content out there. If you add all these three things together, and the advance capabilities of actually being able to access the fixed Internet on your mobile phone, WAP is essentially not just a winner. It's here to stay.