HWW, Telstra in WAP deal
- — 19 October, 2000 17:02
Under the contract, which according to HWW chief operations officer Anthony Ghattas, adds "significant revenue", HWW will build and host wireless application protocol (WAP) services and content for Telstra's WAP portal.
HWW is providing movie and entertainment guides, in addition to managing and hosting Telstra's WAP services including content delivery and advertising.
"This deal is a lot larger in scope and coverage [than previous deals]," Ghattas said. "The difference is that for Telstra we are not only creating and supplying the content, but also designing and managing the distributions systems. Telstra came to us and asked for a solution that would take care of their content needs for the WAP portal," he said.
The service, which has already been live for several days, can be accessed via the Telstra WAP portal and currently carries two HWW services, Your Movies and Your Gigs.
Despite the hype surrounding WAP services, Ghattas said there has been a surge in the market, especially from the telecommunications industry. "It's mainly from telcos who have the money to spend on wireless. Nobody has really worked out how to monetise wireless."
Ghattas said HWW would be interested in expanding its relationship with Telstra in the future. "Going forward, it is our hope that with convergence of both data streams, web and wireless will become one and hopefully we'll do both for them," Ghattas said.
In a separate web deal, HWW already provides finance and entertainment content to Telstra's website.
