Experts hail iMode model for WAP

DQW News Bureau


New Delhi

Experts at the one-day seminar, organized by www.IndiaTimes.com on Wireless Internet, have hailed the technology model adopted by NTT DoCoMo in providing wireless Internet to Japanese mobile users. The service, provided under the brand name iMode, has been a huge success primarily due to the packet switching platform that has been used.

Indian mobile operators have also drawn up plans to offer the service by using a combination of packet switching and circuit switching. But this model would have the limitations of airtime usage, as in circuit switching the user tends to block the network as long as the user is online. While packet switching platform will allow multiple users to simultaneously use the network making optimum use of the capacity. 

This enables service providers to structure the tariff on the basis of applications used, rather than airtime usage. Ultimately it will be prudent for cellular service providers to move to packet switching altogether. 

The success of iMode has also been attributed to the fact that Internet penetration is also limited in Japan. Therefore the use of mobile phones as an access device has become popular in the country. 

The seminar threw up some other interesting observations. One of the observations related to who owns the customer. In the world of mobile Internet, there will be many players who would be catering to the customer. These include the cellular service provider, the handset equipment provider, the infrastructure provider, (in case the cellular service provider does not own the network) and the application providers or the WAP-enable portal owners. 

In the cross-section of service providers there is a strong possibility, that the customer focus will get lost as the buck can get passed. Therefore it was important to fix ownership of the customer. There was a wide consensus that it should be the cellular service provider who has to largely bear the ownership of the customer.

A third issue that was raised is that the limitations of handsets and access devices are largely responsible for the slow take-off of mobile commerce. The analogy of a chicken and egg is apt here, since increased usage is expected to push the development of access devices, while the lack of access devices have proved to be major constraint in the growth of mobile Internet, since the experience of the user is not encouraging.