Industry support for wireless application protocol gains momentum

New language for microbrowsers under development

(July 7, 1997) - Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Unwired Planet today announced growing industry support for the Wireless Application Protocol effort announced on June 26, 1997, with ALCATEL, Mitsubishi Electric, Nortel, Philips Consumer Communications and Siemens Private Communication Systems Group (PN) endorsing the initiative.

Collectively, the group also acknowledged support for the Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML), as submitted to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), as the basis for the new Wireless Application Protocol microbrowser. The transport protocol will be based on the Narrowband Sockets specification.

The Wireless Application Protocol, which will be independent of the underlying airlink standard, and is initially targeted at GSM-technology networks, aims to align industry efforts to bring advanced applications and Internet content to digital cellular phones. For cellular phone manufacturers, a common standard means the potential for realizing economies of scale. This encourages them to invest in the development of compatible hardware to support these advanced applications. Likewise, cellular network operators are encouraged to develop new offerings as a way of differentiating their service and attracting new subscribers. Ultimately this is beneficial for consumers as it will mean more and varied choice in mobile communications.

The draft protocol will be made available to cellular phone manufacturers and operators around the world and is expected to be published on the World Wide Web by September 15, 1997.

Ericsson's 90,000 employees are active in more than 130 countries. Their combined expertise in fixed and mobile networks, mobile phones and infocom systems makes Ericsson the world-leading supplier in telecommunications.
Find out about Ericsson on the Web: http://www.ericsson.se

Motorola is the world's largest manufacturer of cellular telephones and provides wireless communications, semiconductors and advanced electronic systems and services. Other major equipment businesses include two way radio, paging and data communications, personal communications, automotive, defense and space electronics and computers.
Visit Motorola on the Web at http://www.mot.com

Nokia is the world's largest manufacturer of digital mobile phones and one of the two largest supplier of GSM networks with sales in approximately 130 countries and with 33 000 employees in 45 countries. Nokia is also the global leader in wireless data.
You can visit Nokia on the Web: http://www.nokia.com

Unwired Planet was founded in 1994 to develop and market a comprehensive, open, communications platform including browser, gateway, and markup language that provides wireless access from handheld devices to the Internet and corporate intranets. UP technology is network- and device-independent and has been adopted by leading wireless carriers.
For more information, visit http://www.uplanet.com

The Business Systems Division of Alcatel addresses enterprises and private users, and is with 10 million terminals in 1996, one of the major worldwide manufacturer of professional and private terminals. Alcatel concentrates its offer on advanced terminals (screen phones, multimedia devices) and mobile phones (analog cordless technology, digital GSM and DECT technologies).
For more information on Alcatel GSM mobile phones, visit: http://www.alcatel.com/gsm

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (MELCO) is one of the leading electrical and electronics equipment firms in the world. The company and its subsidiaries offer a broad line of information processing and communications systems, semiconductors and electronic devices, industrial equipment and consumer electronics, including wireless communications products such as analog, PCS and integrated voice/data phones.

Nortel works with customers worldwide to design, build, and integrate digital networks ­ for information, entertainment, education, and business ­ offering one of the broadest choices of network solutions in the industry. Nortel reported revenues of $12.85 billion in 1996, and has approximately 68,000 employees worldwide providing enterprise, wireless and carrier services.

Philips Consumer Communications, a business group of Philips Electronics N.V., is headquartered in Le Mans, France. PCC designs, manufactures and markets a complete range of personal communications products including digital and analogue cellular and cordless phones, corded phones, answering machines, screen phones and pagers. Its objective is to be one of the top three manufacturers in consumer telephony by the year 2000.
You can visit Philips on the web at http://www.philips.com

Siemens Private Communication Systems Group (PN) is one of the world's largest providers of communications solutions for companies and private customers. Siemens PN is a competent terminals partner for telecom carriers, service providers and trade all over the world and Siemens PN ranks third in the communication terminals business worldwide.