Thus spake "Brijesh Kumar" <bkumar(_at_)ENNOVATENETWORKS(_dot_)COM>
1. A WAP phone without an IP address is not an Internet device. And,
no one claims so.
The telcos who offer WAP service (at least in my town) market it as
"Wireless Internet Access". They do not advertise it as "wireless
application-proxy-based access to certain web pages", which is what
they're really selling.
2. A WAP device can have both IP and non-IP addresses. So a WAP
device could be an Internet device at one time and non-Internet device
a bit later (at least in theory).
If it speaks IP, it's Internet. None of the WAP phones I've used or
seen so far speak IP.
3. An IP address is not very useful on most mobile (cellular) devices.
With the current billing model of per-minute connection charges and slow
speeds, it's not useful. The economics just aren't there for the
consumer.
If the business model were different, it could definitely be useful --
if my laptop had fast, always-on wireless IP access at a reasonable
price, I'd never go to the office.
A lot of useful services and applications can be provided without IP
on the wireless devices. That includes sending and receiving mails
to/from the Internet, and limited web browsing via proxy gateways.
Agreed. Those services are useful, and they can be done without IP --
it's just not Internet.
Let's not forget one of the most significant reasons the Internet was
created was to eliminate the need for network-based application
gateways. In this context, WAP devices are anti-Internet.
4. Wireless web access using IP is already here, but very few bother
to use it. Networks with the ability to handle IP traffic such as CDPD
have traditionally very low (as per my info, under 15% or so) capacity
utilization and just about every network is under utilized, and in big
loss situation, so much for IP access in wireless devices. At the same
time GSM SMS which needs no IP addressing has a tremendous
demands. So go figure out utility and economics of IP addresses in
wireless devices for now.
See above.
S
| | Stephen Sprunk, K5SSS, CCIE #3723
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