WAP

WAP is an open international standard for application layer network communications in a wireless communication environment. Its major use is to enable access to the Internet (HTTP) from a mobile phone or PDA.

A WAP browser provides all of the basic services of a computer based web browser but cut down to operate within the restrictions of a mobile phone, such as its smaller view screen. WAP sites are websites written in, or dynamically converted to, WML (Wireless Markup Language) and accessed using the WAP browser.

Before the introduction of WAP, service providers had very limited opportunities to tender interactive data services. Interactive data applications are required to hold up now commonplace activities such as:

* Email by mobile phone
* Tracking of stock market prices
* Sports results
* News headlines
* Music downloads

The Japanese i-mode system is another main competing wireless data protocol.