Third Generation mobile phones. These will contain colour displays and have the facilities for full multimedia. 3G promises increased bandwidth, up to a theoretical 384 kbps when a device is stationary or moving at pedestrian speed, 128 kbps in a car and 2 mbps in fixed applications. In practice speeds are likely to be slower than this.
Active Server Page - A dynamically created web page that generates html or wml. code.
The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time. For digital devices, the bandwidth is usually expressed in kilobits per second(Kbps).
A wireless network standard for communicating between devices. It uses a greater bandwidth than currently offered via GSM but operates over a short range. Bluetooth technology eliminates the need for numerous and inconvenient cable attachments for connecting computers, mobile phones, mobile computers and handheld devices.
Short for Web browser, a software application used to locate and display Web pages. The two most popular browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Both of these are graphical browsers, which means that they can display graphics as well as text.
The conversion of data into a secret code and used to provide security in the transmission of data. Nationwide requires devices to support 128 bit encryption to access Internet Banking.
General Packet Radio Service. This allows a phone/device to have a permanent, or "always-on" connection to the network. Capacity is only used when sending or receiving packets of information and is particularly suited for small bursts of data, such as e-mail and Web browsing, as well as large volumes of data. Has the potential to offer speeds of up to 150 kilobits per second in the future, compared with current GSM systems' 9.6 kilobits. The customer pays for the data transferred as opposed to the connection time on GSM systems.
Global System for Mobile Connection. The system we currently use for our mobile phones. It offers international roaming allowing consumers to use the service in more than 170 countries.
HyperText Markup Language - A language used to produce Internet pages.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Defines how messages are formatted and transmitted and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. For example, when you enter a URL in your browser, this actually sends an HTTP command to the Web server directing it to fetch and transmit the requested Web page.
i-Mode is NTT DoCoMo's mobile internet access system. Very popular in Japan with over 16million subscribers (Dec 2000). It uses an "always-on" connection and users pay for the data they download. Wide range of content available through mobile phones with larger and in some cases colour, screens. NTT plan to introduce the technology to other countries.
Internet Service Provider, a company that provides access to the Internet. For a monthly fee or free, the service provider gives you a software package, username, password and access phone number.
Mobile commerce & Mobile business. e-Commerce but for mobile devices.
Palmtops - Cut down PCs reliant on touch screen input (e.g. Compaq iPAQ H3630). Around the size of your palm, the screen is usually in portrait form. Handhelds - cut down PCs with a small keyboard e.g. Psion Reeve. Screen is usually in a landscape form.
Microsoft Operating system with cut down versions of Windows, Internet Explorer, Word and Excel. This operating system is used on a number of PDAs including - Compaq, Casio and HP product ranges.
"PC Card" - Stands for Personal Computer Memory Card International Association. An international trade association who have developed standards for devices, such as modems and external hard drives, that can be plugged into PDAs, small computers and Laptops. A PCMCIA Modem Card is about the size of a credit card and slots into your device (or an attachment) and allows you to get online via a normal GSM phone socket with a wire. A PCMCIA Phone Card acts like a mobile phone and allows you to get online wirelessly.
A Personal Digital Assistant or "personal organiser". These are palm-sized devices that have personal information services on them including an appointments diary, contact names and addresses. Data entry is either through handwriting recognition or using an on screen keyboard which you "pick" characters on using the stylus.
A site that provides easy access to other content.
A 24 PIN socket located on the back of televisions. Usually used to connect a TV to a video. Used by Internet TV to connect the Set Top box to the TV so web pages can be displayed.
Short Message Service, a text messaging service between mobile phones up to 149 characters.
Secure Socket Layer - an encryption method for secure data transfer.
A joint venture by Nokia, Ericsson and Psion formed to establish new product categories, license wireless software to all industry players and drive open standards for Wireless Information Devices.
An emerging standard for software that allows synchronisation between WAP phones & PCs.
Uniform Resource Locator, the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web, e.g. www.nationwide.co.uk.
Wireless Application Protocol is a standard for providing access to data from WAP enabled phones. WAP can be used to obtain information on latest news, sport, weather, entertainment etc and can be used to shop or bank on-line.
Short for Wireless Mark-up Language, which allows text-based web information to be displayed on wireless devices such as mobile phones and PDA's.
Wireless Telephony Layer Security. A wireless encryption method for secure data transfer.