WAP service puts mobile phones on a new wave

Like all good propaganda, Esat Digifone's claim that its new phone can access the Internet is mostly true

Like all good propaganda, Esat Digifone's claim that its new phone can access the Internet is mostly true. You can browse a very limited, rudimentary version of the Internet but, for the moment, that's it.

You can check out the latest headlines on the RTE news, consider the betting odds on the weekend's GAA matches, then read a review of a film you might go to later, all while waiting for the bus.

And it is that ease of use that indicates that mobile Internet surfing is likely to take off.

In unveiling its WAP (mobile Internet) service, Digifone beat Eircell to the punch by a week - the Eircell service is now available too, but handsets are scarce.

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Digifone's new "dot Digifone-on-line" pack includes the new Nokia 7110 WAP-enabled handset and a connection to the network which costs £249 (€316).

You can use the phone in the normal way to make calls and send text messages, or scroll up to "Services - WWW" to log on. When the connection goes through, you see a screen that says "DOT - digifone on-line", which then gives a choice of six areas: bookmaker, entertainment, news, sport, travel, weather.

The bookmaker in question is Paddy Power, and you can click and scroll down through the adverts for various sporting events. It makes for interesting reading, but, for the moment, there is no chance to bet online.

Entertainment gives a choice of cinema listings, reviews and times; television, which can be searched by channel or key word, and there's a list of today's movies; theatre, with what is on in each of the 32 counties; restaurants reviewed in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick; video, the top 10 current releases; and music, with tonight's venues, top 20 charts and CD reviews.

Presumably, in future, you will be able to book a restaurant table, or hire a video, by clicking through on the network.

News has a couple of sentences on the top three or four breaking stories from 98 FM and RTE, as well as business news, including currency and stock market updates, from Business & Finance magazine.

The sports section has news and headlines from the day's games.

Travel is pretty weak; just Aer Lingus schedules rather than realtime flight arrival or departure information, plus traffic reports from RTE and 98FM.

Weather is just a summary from either RTE or 98 FM, both of whom presumably get it from Met Eireann anyway.

It is also possible, but a lot more complicated, to connect to other WAP-enabled sites. For the moment, there are very few of these, but you can hook up to a basic text service from the BBC and other broadcasters.

Ironically, the new service will make users a lot less tolerant of the current high level of network failures and black spots, on both Digifone and Eircell.

Having a conversation cut is one thing; having a sports summary go down before you've seen who won the match, especially when it took five minutes to click to it at 12p a minute, would be infuriating.

Sean Mac Carthaigh can be contacted at smaccarthaigh@irish- times.ie