Microsoft, MapQuest.com Among List of New Members Adopting WAP Standard
Mountain View, Calif. - (June 14, 1999) - The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum (www.wapforum.org) today announced that 30 technology companies from around the world have become members since the beginning of 1999, bringing the current total membership to 108. New members include computer industry leader Microsoft Corporation and advanced mapping systems leader MapQuest.com, as well as numerous network operators and telecom software and hardware vendors from around the globe. Other current members include leading handset manufacturers, infrastructure providers, software developers and other organizations providing solutions to the wireless industry.
WAP is the de-facto worldwide standard for providing Internet communications and advanced telephony services on digital mobile phones, pagers, personal digital assistants and other wireless terminals. The WAP Forum was formed in December 1997 by Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Phone.com (formerly Unwired Planet). The charter of the WAP Forum is to bring together service providers, handset and infrastructure manufacturers, Internet content provider and application developers to ensure interoperability and growth of wireless Internet-based services.
· Connect Austria www.one.at
· Denso Corporation www.denso.co.jp
· The Fantastic Corporation www.fantastic.com
· Finnet-liittory (Finnet Association0 www.finnet.fi
· Giesecke & Devrient GmbH www.gdm.de
· ICO Communications www.ico.com
· Japan Telecom Co. www.japan-telecom.co.jp
· KPN www.kpn.com · Lexacom www.lexacom.com
· LG Information & Communications Ltd. www.lgic.co.kr
· Lucent Technologies www.lucent.com
· Mannesmann Aktiengesellschaft www.mannesmann.de
· MapQuest.com www.mapquest.com
· Microsoft Corp. www.microsoft.com
· Mobile Services Group www.protectionone-mobile.com
· Nextel Communications www.nextel.com
· Nissan Communications Systems. Ltd. www.n-cs.co.jp
· Orange Personal Communications www.orange.co.uk
· ORGA Kartensysteme www.orga.com
· Oy Radiolinja AB www.radiolinja.fi
· Peramon Technology www.peramon.com
· ProxiNet Inc. www.proxinet.com
· RTS Wireless www.rtswireless.com
· SK Telecom Company Ltd. www.sktelecom.com
· Systems Engineering Consultants Company Ltd. www.sec.co.jp
· Tantau www.tantau.com
· Telefonica Moviles www.tsm.es
· Tu_Ka Cellular Tokyo Inc. www.tu-ka.co.jp
· UBS www.ubs.com
· Usha Communications Technology www.ushacomm.com
"WAP momentum is increasing as we continue to broaden our membership with representation from all corners of the computer, Internet and telecommunications industries," said Chuck Parrish, WAP Forum board chairman and executive vice president of Phone.com (formerly Unwired Planet, Inc.), a founding Forum member. "Content developers are excited about WAP's capability to take their programs and services into the wireless domain and make them available anytime, anywhere for the mobile user. The Forum is extremely pleased with the progress we've made this year, and we look forward to the rollout of commercial WAP products and services in the months ahead."
"Microsoft and the WAP Forum share a common vision of providing access to Internet information from mobile devices," said Harel Kodesh, vice president of the Productivity Appliances Division at Microsoft. "We look forward to working with the Forum members to reach convergence of the WAP specification with those of the W3C and IETF. We are working to add WAP support to our products and are committed to supporting the WAP specification in the next release of the Microsoft microbrowser."
"MapQuest.com's commitment to the WAP Forum stems from our 30 year heritage as a map provider. After making the seamless transition from printed maps to online mapping, we see WAP-enabled devices as the natural next-step in bringing maps and driving directions to the mobile customer world wide," said Michael Nappi, vice president, business solutions for MapQuest.com. "Today at MapQuest.com, our Internet service delivers in excess of 120 maps per second with unlimited room for expansion provided by our proprietary, fully scalable technology infrastructure. This market-proven technology ensures that MapQuest.com is positioned to meet the demand of end users accessing our map and driving direction services from mobile communicators."
"Nextel pledges its support of the WAP standard in all its next-generation digital phones to be available later this year," said Mike Ozburn, vice president and general manager of Nextel Online. "We are fully behind creating a global wireless protocol specification and are very proud to be joining others in the WAP Forum."
In April, more than 325 participants in the WAP Forum gathered in Montreux, Switzerland, to develop enhancements to the protocol and relationships with other industry groups to expand the reach of the specification. Members of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's (ETSI) Mobile Execution Environment (MExE) attended the meeting and participated in technical workshops, with the intention of evolving next-generation Internet standards to better meet the requirements of future wireless network technologies. The Forum chartered a Multimedia Experts Group to investigate the support of multimedia applications in the WAP framework. In addition, the Forum resolved final fixes and issues with the WAP Version 1.1 specifications, which are being voted on and approved by the membership this month.
The WAP Forum also announced that its next meeting will be held June 27 through July 2 in San Francisco. Members can register for this meeting at http://www1.wapforum.org/meetings/members-sanfran.htm. In the two weeks prior to the San Francisco meeting, various WAP Forum members will demonstrate their support of the WAP standard in their booths at CDMA World Congress in Hong Kong and CommunicAsia in Singapore.
The WAP Forum is an industry association that has developed the de-facto world standard for wireless information and telephony services on digital mobile phones and other wireless terminals. Handset manufacturers representing more than 90 percent of the world market across all technologies have committed to shipping WAP-enabled devices. Carriers representing nearly 100 million subscribers worldwide have joined WAP. These commitments will put 10's of millions of WAP-browser-enabled prod-ucts in consumer hands by the end of 2000. WAP Forum membership is open to all industry participants.
For further details on the WAP Forum and its members, please visit the Forum's web site at www.wapforum.org. The web site also includes a downloadable version of WAP V1.0.
# # #
All company, brand and product names may be trademarks that are the sole property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.
For further information contact:
David Nieland Lisa Offield BSMG Worldwide BSMG Worldwide Voice: +1 972 830 2663 Voice: +1 972 830 2360 Fax: +1 972 830 1663 Fax: +1 972 868 7672 dnieland@bsmg.com loffield@bsmg.com
[ Home | Contact | MobiChat | Experts database | Let's do it ]
Comments to the content of this page can be posted on the MobiChat discussion group