The networks that connect handheld wireless devices such as cell phones and PDAs suffer from low bandwidth and a high incidence of network errors. By employing mobile agents, such devices could provide a reliable technology for message transport over wireless links. Mobile agents are inherently distributed software entities that reduce the load on the network when they move. Mobile agents can be employed in wireless handheld devices in two ways: An agent platform could be installed on the device, enabling mobile agents to run directly on it, or devices could access and use remote mobile agents running on wired networks. Each approach is viable and has its own advantages and domain-specific applications. Some high-end devices would benefit from running a mobile agent platform that lets agents run locally, but this would not be beneficial to others because of processing power and memory constraints or for security reasons.