AS anyone infected with technolust knows, the rapid pace of change means that just when you can finally afford to buy the latest product in the market, better technology is just around the corner.

Just as the gigahertz PCs powered by Intel Corp. and AMD would make the Pentium III 550Mhz desktop I'm using look like a smoker taking up jogging, so too would the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)-enabled handsets slated to come out later this year leave current Wireless Application Protocol phones gasping for breath. And, heck, I haven't even bought a WAP phone yet.

With GPRS just around the corner, does it make more sense to wait for the new handsets instead of buying a WAP phone today? After all, current handsets won't be compatible with the packet switching-based GPRS networks. Today's WAP phones are still based on Global System for Mobile communication's circuit switched data networks.

"You can't upgrade current WAP handsets to GPRS," said Georges Boulloy, vice president for product management GSM, Communication Devices at Siemens AG's Information and Communication Mobile division. "Now, does this mean you should wait for GPRS? You can always wait for new technology. If it's not GPRS, then you could wait for UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System). I would say, however, that waiting does not put you on top of the technology wave. If you want to be on top of the wave today, you need WAP. If you want to be on top of the next wave, you need GPRS."

At the Siemens press briefing in CommunicAsia2000, Boulloy, however, noted that WAP as we know it today can already do a "good job" connecting mobile users to the Internet, particularly in Asia where many people still do not own a PC. He explained that not every mobile user would already require the kind of services that the fast GPRS data transfer rates would make possible. GPRS uses eight 14.4 kilobits per second time slots simultaneously, offering theoretical speeds of up to 171.2 kbps.

In a later interview, Boulloy told the Inquirer that he believes that a good market still exists for current WAP applications.

"The window of opportunity is longer than people think. GPRS will take some time to implement and not everyone would require GPRS. Also, the handsets would initially be expensive. It will take, let's say, some months to fully implement GPRS once it comes out. The current WAP phones still have at least a year to go before they are replaced, which is about the right lifespan for mobile phones," he said.

He also noted that speed is not the only advantage that GPRS offers, but also quality of service options. Since GPRS is based on packet switching, operators can charge users per packet used instead of expensive airtime rates.

"Actually, today WAP speed is enough for everybody. Look at Japan," he said, referring to the success of NTT DoCoMo, the world's biggest mobile phone operator and Japan's biggest Internet service provider.

Since launching its i-Mode wireless Internet service in February 1999, NTT DoCoMo now has over 7 million subscribers to this service. NTT DoCoMo did it without WAP, since users still access pages written in a compact version of HyperText Markup Language, instead of WAP's Wireless Markup Language. I-Mode's success also debunked the myth that high bandwidth is a must, since the content can be downloaded quickly at the usual 9.6 kbps data transfer rate.

Moreover, unlike today's WAP subscribers, i-Mode users don't have to dial-up to a WAP server but are always connected to the packet network, just as we would be with GPRS. NTT DoCoMo showcased at CommunicAsia its Wideband Code Division Multiple Access 3G strategy, which it hopes would replicate i-Mode's Japanese success in the rest of the world. NTT DoCoMo is set to introduce WCDMA services next year. It is also partnering with Siemens for field testing of both the Frequency Division Duplexing (based on WCDMA) and Time Division Duplexing (based on Time Division-CDMA) components of UMTS, another 3G technology.

In a separate interview, Smart Communications Inc. public affairs head Ramon Isberto said that the past six months cannot be used as an accurate gauge of the market for WAP, because of the previous problem with the supply of WAP handsets. He said that the next 12 months would prove to be the most interesting time for WAP and mobile e-commerce.

"The first problem with WAP is making the WAP phones available in the market, and the second, of course, is making them affordable," Isberto said.

The first problem is now being addressed since the manufacturers are now coming out with more handsets and different models. Isberto also cited the new Siemens WAP handsets that Smart started offering last week, which he said come at a price range of from P5,000 to P7,000. These are the entry-level C35i and the high-end S35.

"These phones are more affordable and the phones that are in our stock come directly from the supplier, not a third-party distributor. We dealt with Siemens itself to provide service guarantees to our subscribers," he said. "The initial WAP phones that were available were very expensive but these Siemens phones are about half the price."

In the end, both Boulloy and Isberto agreed that technology would not be enough to drive the market for WAP and other mobile Internet services.