WAP usage going strong

September 2004 has seen an increase of 20.4% in its recorded number of WAP pages viewed compared with the same period in 2003. About 1.08 billion WAP pages impressions were viewed in the UK during September 2004, according to figures announced by the Mobile Data Association (MDA).

Allowing for seasonal differences, the MDA forecasts continued growth with WAP page impressions expected to reach a total of 13 billion for 2004. Almost all portal services provided by mobile operators (including O2 Active, Vodafone live! and T-Mobile Zones) are currently based on WAP technology.

Winners of the Mobile Data Awards were announced at the Association's 10 year Birthday Gala Dinner held at Painters' Hall in London on the 28th October. Finalists for the most innovative use of WAP and associated browser technologies were Vodafone for Vodafone Live and T-Mobile for T-Zones, but it was Bango that scooped the award for developing a globally accessible, cross-operator platform, making mobile Internet content easily accessible to everyone with a phone. Using the best available billing methods, the platform collects micro-payments from users, identifies them and applies mobile operator content controls so that content providers don't have to worry about it.