As part of plans to be a WAP service provider, the company has already put in place a WAP portal targeted at the travel industry, WAPTravel2000.com. The company is gearing up to offer travel-related WAP services to mobile users in the United Kingdom in June, to be followed by Singapore and India by September this year.

Part of the $17 million Switzerland-based Calleo group, the company has pegged the project cost for the UK operations at around Rs 35 crore. In India, the company intends to put up WAP gateways at Delhi and Bangalore before the year-end. Talks with mobile service providers in both these cities are currently on.

Following talks with government officials in the Ministry of Communication, the company is looking at commercialising the WAP gateways by year-end, company executives said.

According to Calleo Consolidated managing director Pradeep Mathur, the travel-related WAP portal will only be accessible through WAP-enabled devices. It will deliver several e-commerce enabled online services through mobile phones including accessing travel-related information, buying of tickets, changing reservation status and enjoy duty-free shopping. For kick-starting its UK operations, the company has struck alliances with several travel agencies, airlines, the hospitality industry, mobile phone service providers. Talks are on for similar such tie-ups in India and Singapore. "We would like to enter into relationships with content providers," Mathur said.

Mathur said the business model is based on a revenue-sharing strategy and the British operations are expected to break-even over the next 16 months. According to industry estimates over five million WAP-enabled phones are expected to be sold in the UK by the end of the current year.

For its India operations the company plans to invest Rs 10 crore this year. Calleo has software development facility at Bangalore. Mathur said this facility was instrumental in developing the prototype WAP gateway which will be replicated in other centres.