WAPsite development center to be set up
CEBU CITY, 20 July 2000 (Asia Pulse) - Philippine WAP Users Group (PhilWAP) Cebu head, Chito Ortiz, said the facility would be complete with the needed infrastructure such as personal computers and computing books, among others.
PhilWAP Cebu aims to make Cebu the center for WAPsite development in the country, he said.
WAP service, which is now being offered by cellular phone operators, is an open global specification that empowers mobile phone users to gain access to the Internet.
PhilWAP is a non-stock, non-profit national organization dedicated to nurturing WAP developers and entrepreneurs in the country.
According to its national president, Ramon Canumay, there is a need to tap the potential of young IT professionals to develop local WAPsites.
The more local the WAPsites are, such as sites offering information on rates of hotel and restaurants in the country, the more useful the service will become to mobile phone subscribers, he said at a press conference on Monday at the Laguna Garden Cafe to promote the upcoming WAPcceleration.
He said large business entities, including Globe Telecom, WAP phone producers Nokia and Ericsson, and IT giant Lucent Technologies, are now keen on supporting PhilWAP.
Globe Telecom Visayas area vice president, Exuperto Cabatana, has assured PhilWAP of the telecommunication company's support for the organization.
According to Cabatana, Globe was the first in the industry to introduce the WAP service to its subscribers.
Jerome Almirante, marketing manager of rival Smart Communications, Inc., said Smart has also been supporting PhilWAP.
Five of the first WAP sites developed in the world were done by Smart's partners in the Philippines, he said.
PhilWAP, in cooperation with Ayala, will hold the Cebu leg of WAPcceleration, a symposium meant to focus on WAPsite development to push the country into the forefront of global Internet commerce on July 20 at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel.
