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Increasing Mobile Users Surf Net
China's mobile Internet market, propelled by the popularity of the Internet and mobile phones, will witness a growth of 500 per cent by 2001, industry insiders predict.
Lu Xiangdong, vice-president with China Mobile Communications Corp, said yesterday that the number of China's WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)-enabled mobile phone users is expected to hit 800,000 by the end of this year and reach 4 million next year.
"Although mobile Internet services have only been in operation for three months, the market demand is encouraging," Lu said at the 4th Annual GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) China 2000 Conference.
The conference, with the theme of "Mobile IP," focused on technological trends in the mobile Internet field and its applications.
WAP enables users to log onto the Internet with their mobile phones.
China Mobile and China Unicom, the country's only two mobile communications operators, have already provided WAP services in large and medium-sized cities.
Lu said that problems still exist, which will affect the further popularity of WAP services.
"The WAP-enabled mobile Internet service still needs time to deal with problems of bandwidth and content supply," said Lu.
The information that mobile phones can currently access is limited to the weather forecast, ticket booking and the stock exchange.
Ken Zhang, vice-president with Ericsson China, said that the application of the General Packet Radio Systems (GPRS), which is expected to be put into operation next year, will greatly increase the speed at which mobile phones will be able to access information on the Internet.
China Mobile and China Unicom are conducting trials on the GPRS in several cities.
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