WAP Reaches Milestone

The Wireless Application Protocol Forum has proclaimed Telecom '99, the international telecommunications exhibition being held this week in Geneva, Switzerland, as the unofficial coming out party for WAP, a proposed standard for transmitting Internet Protocol data over wireless links.

In conjunction with the internation telecommunications showcase, the WAP Forum announced that it's membership ranks had surpassed 200. Prior to the show, the industry group announced 29 new memberships, including Amazon.com.

In addition to the membership announcement, WAP Forum officials said that Telecom '99 will be the site of multiple introductions of WAP-compliant equipment and services. Major mobile phone supplier Nokia is already a strong backer of the WAP technology. And, earlier today, Hewlett-Packard unveiled a new mobile services initiative that supports WAP.

Despite the groundswell of support for WAP, critics said it will be several more months before service providers will be able to offer services based on the protocol.

The WAP Forum is located at www.wapforum.org.