Sixty-nine million people in China will be accessing the Internet over their phones by 2004, Beijing-based telecom consultancy BDA forecast Wednesday.

As China pushes ahead with upgrading current second generation OSM phone networks into third generation (3G) broad-band networks that can carry much larger amounts of data, mobile Internet usage will explode, BDA predicted.

"Reports of the death of WAP (wireless application protocol) have been greatly exaggerated," said BDA partner Duncan Clark.

With the new infrastructure being rolled out and a new model for partnership pursued by China's operators, mobile Internet will finally live up to expectations in China, Clark added.

China Mobile, the country's largest mobile phone operator announced Tuesday that it will begin charging fees for WAP services, which will give content providers a greater incentive to begin developing web pages that can be viewed over a phone.

Ted Dean, managing director of BDA, said: "China Mobile's willingness to partner with content providers and share revenues signals a wave of fresh mobile Internet content and applications."

"Content will provide a catalyst for further growth of the mobile Internet."

Despite wireless penetration of only five percent and Internet penetration of less than two percent, China will boast over 70 million mobile subscribers and 21 million Internet subscribers by the end of 2000, BDA said.

The consultancy forecasts strong growth as the two industries converge, reaching 236 million wireless subscribers and 120 million Internet users by 2004.

(Beijing-2008 11/17/2000)