The others who have already announced their WAP initiatives include, Tata Cellular (which has already launched), Essar and Hutchison (who also plan to launch WAP phones in May), and AirTel (which is pitching for a June launch).However, even as they get ready to launch their WAP ventures, the players admit that without General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology, which is still being tested, Internet-access through WAP, is merely an eyewash.

As Nalin Tikkoo, CEO, Sterling Cellular, points out, even though there is a lot of noise about WAP, it still has a lot of issues attached to it: "For one, field trials on GPRS will take a couple of more months and it will be ready for commercial application, only by the end of the year. Then, all WAP phones and networks have to be made compatible to each other. Besides, the regulatory and security issues of completing a transaction using WAP have to be sorted out."

Then there is a question of how useful data transmission will be at the ridiculous speed of 9.6kbps. Plus, even if WAP access is given for free, how viable will surfing the Net be at the current airtime rates of Rs 4 per minute, asks Pramod Saxena, general manager and executive director, South Asia Network Solutions Division, Motorola.

In fact, even as Modi says that WAP will let people make crucial buy/sell decision, he also admits that without GPRS, WAP will not serve much purpose.This is also the reason why companies like Escotel have opted to wait till the GPRS software hits the market. "We are converting our network to GPRS because it is very important to provide packet based data transmission, which will actually beef up the data transmission rates to 64kbps."

GPRS is a data network that uses the existing radio base stations linked to a new network based on `packet' technology. On the other hand, in the existing `circuit-switched' networks, the user dials the number required and the network connects the call, allocating a circuit between the two parties until the call is ended. This means you pay for all the time you are connected to the net, points out Saxena. However, GPRS will change all that.

GPRS ensures that the network is only utilized when data is being transmitted, so the user retains a virtual connection to the network without paying extra This means, while subscribers can stay online 24hours a day, without paying anything extra. They only have to pay for the time taken to download or send information, which again would come down drastically with GPRS .Meanwhile till GPRS enters the scene, Spice Telecom, plans to use WAP to provide two-way short messaging service (SMS).