Das Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a data transmission standard for mobile phone systems. Mobile devices such as mobile phones and PDAs can use WAP to receive internet pages and online services and view these on their small displays, even though these displays typically can only display a few lines of text and the devices only have a numerical keyboard with limited additional possibilities to function as an input interface. Taking this limited viewing capability into account, WAP pages contain less graphic elements than standard web pages and are programmed in a special language, the wireless markup language (WML).
New technical developments
Yet the range of WAP services is also changing. Firstly, with the introduction of GPRS and UMTS, customers can now benefit from higher speeds which in turn allow more complex programming of the pages. Secondly, the development of mobile phones continues to be very dynamic with many of these today already boasting a colour display. A number of displays can already show more than 65,000 colours and have a superior definition.
In order to use WAP, mobile phone customers need a WAP compatible mobile telephone, i.e. a mobile phone with an integrated WAP browser. Despite the fact that HTML, the programming language for the internet, is related to the WML/ xHTML used for WAP pages, a standard internet browser is not suitable for internet access with a mobile phone. Only WAP browsers are able to clearly display the online pages on mobile phones or PDAs and also able to correctly interpret navigation control commands from information and services. PDAs which only have an internet browser are able to download a suitable WAP browser from the internet itself, such as the EzWAP browser.
In addition to the set-up of independent WAP-based information services so-called gateways can also be used. Gateways translate internet protocols into the WAP standards thereby enabling access to content already available in the internet. In this case the mobile device calls the WAP gateway operator. This process corresponds to setting up an internet connection to an internet service provider. After a successful login the display shows the O2 Active Portal.
New technical developments
Yet the range of WAP services is also changing. Firstly, with the introduction of GPRS and UMTS, customers can now benefit from higher speeds which in turn allow more complex programming of the pages. Secondly, the development of mobile phones continues to be very dynamic with many of these today already boasting a colour display. A number of displays can already show more than 65,000 colours and have a superior definition.
In order to use WAP, mobile phone customers need a WAP compatible mobile telephone, i.e. a mobile phone with an integrated WAP browser. Despite the fact that HTML, the programming language for the internet, is related to the WML/ xHTML used for WAP pages, a standard internet browser is not suitable for internet access with a mobile phone. Only WAP browsers are able to clearly display the online pages on mobile phones or PDAs and also able to correctly interpret navigation control commands from information and services. PDAs which only have an internet browser are able to download a suitable WAP browser from the internet itself, such as the EzWAP browser.
In addition to the set-up of independent WAP-based information services so-called gateways can also be used. Gateways translate internet protocols into the WAP standards thereby enabling access to content already available in the internet. In this case the mobile device calls the WAP gateway operator. This process corresponds to setting up an internet connection to an internet service provider. After a successful login the display shows the O2 Active Portal.