[svlug] SMS, WAP in Bay Area?

[Tin Le]

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This is what I am currently working on.  Wireless.... soooo....

> OK, my technical sense of curiosity is getting the better of me -
> I got a new Nokia cell phone and started playing with gnokii
> (www.gnokii.org) and that led to a range of other questions...
> namely, about SMS and WAP.  I've been to a site about a unix SMS
> client (http://www.styx.demon.co.uk/) and I've downloaded all
> sorts of docs to read.  But, I'm still a bit confused.

> Are there any cellular providers in the Bay Area that offer WAP
> enabled services?  What phone are they selling that supports WAP?

GTE, Sprint PCS offers "web" access.  Their phone uses Phone.com's
microbrowser, which is HDML - the pre-cursor to WML/WAP.  It's close
enough that you can write WML pages and these phones will display it
fine.  Just don't use the new features in WML, that is not in HDML.

Next version of the microbrowser will be WAP compliant.

AT&T(Cellular One) is starting to _re_offer PocketNet, but it's CDPD,
only offered on one phone (Mitsubishi MAT250).  They tried offering this
several years ago and it went no where... too slow, bad network, etc.

> Has anyone played with any SMS features using any of the local
> cellular providers?  Cellular One?  Pac Bell?  Others?

As far as I know, most offer SMS.  It's WAP that is hard to find in
the US.  I've been trying to order WAP from them, and the response from
their sales critters was "huh?!".

I have a WAP gateway setup, but it's only for my own testing at the
moment as I am developing WAP/WML apps.

> I'm goofing off really - playing with my new toy.  But gee, this
> stuff is cool!  If there is anyone else out there playing with
> this stuff, do you want to share notes?

Yeah, it's pretty cool toy.  As long as one keep in mind what its
advantages and disadvantages are :-).  I got tired of all the hypes
in the press.  I just can't see watching MPEG movie on my WAP phone,
besides the coolness factor of course ;-))).

Tin Le
- ----
http://tin.le.org
Internet Security and Firewall Consulting
Tin Le - tin at le.org

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