Members Launch Commercial Products and Services Based on WAP V1.1 at Telecom '99 Forum Creates WAP^TM Logo Licensing Program for Mobile Web Sites

Geneva - (8 October 1999) - The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum (www.wapforum.org) today announced its 200th member company at Telecom '99 - proving that WAP is the de-facto global standard for providing Internet communications and advanced telephony services on digital mobile phones, pagers, personal digital assistants and other wireless terminals. The Forum has more than doubled its membership in the last four months due, in part, to a new Associate Member category designed to offer content and service providers, application developers, tool vendors and non-infrastructure industry suppliers greater participation in the Forum and the development of the WAP protocol.

"The WAP Forum will enter the new millennium with a membership in excess of 200 companies. This is outstanding testimony to the growing interest in the mobile Internet and a tribute to the fact that WAP is a completely open standard, designed to work on any wireless device or network," said Gregory Williams, board chairman of the WAP Forum. "Telecom '99 will be a platform for an abundance of WAP V1.1 product launches from handset manufacturers, infrastructure providers, carriers and content developers. Consumers and business users of WAP-enabled wireless devices will now have instant, secure access to Internet/intranet information - anytime, anywhere."

The WAP Forum also announced a new logo licensing program for content developers, to help offer access to Web sites written in Wireless Markup Language (WML) by users of WAP-enabled mobile devices. Content developers can access the WAP logos and usage guidelines via the WAP Forum Web site (www.wapforum.org). After completing a logo license agreement and passing a syntax check, content developers can download the WAP logo for use on their sites. "There will be a rich and wide variety of WAP content for users to choose from. You'll see the WAP logo validation mark appearing on WML content Web sites in the next few months," added Williams.

New Members of WAP Forum

To follow is a list of 29 companies that have joined the Forum since its meeting in London on Sept. 12-17, 1999 (note: a full list of members is available on the WAP Forum Web site at www.wapforum.org):

About the WAP Forum

he WAP Forum is an industry association that has developed the de-facto world standard for wireless information and telephony services on digital mobile phones and other wireless terminals. Handset manufacturers representing 95 per cent of the world market across all technologies have committed to shipping WAP-enabled devices. Carriers representing more than 100 million subscribers worldwide have joined WAP. These commitments will put 10's of millions of WAP-browser-enabled products in consumer hands by the end of 2000. WAP Forum membership is open to all industry participants. For further details on the Forum and its members, please visit the Forum's Web site at www.wapforum.org. The Web site also includes a downloadable version of WAP V1.1.

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