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Mobile firms team up for open standards 
Wednesday, November 14 2001
by Matthew Clark


Led by Nokia, 14 of the world's most notable wireless companies have teamed up to
develop an open architecture for wireless products and services 

The new agreement was announced earlier in the week in Las Vegas at the Comdex
trade show. The companies involved, a veritable who's who of the mobile world,
include AT&T Wireless, mmO2, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, Fujitsu, Motorola, Nokia,
Siemens, Sony Ericsson and Symbian, among others. 



Microsoft -- which has traditionally resisted open standards but is trying to
establish itself as a wireless leader, and in many respects already is one -- was
notably absent from the consortium.



The purpose of the agreement is to create a global and open mobile software and
services market, the companies said. This will be seen as important because it
marks a milestone in the industry's movement toward interoperable devices and
services for mobile Internet access and the downloading of video content. The new
open standards initiative is based on GSM, GPRS and 3G technologies. 



"By following consistent global and open standards, these industry leaders will
be able to provide consumers with a wide selection of different competitive, yet
interoperable terminals and services, and hence promote significant industry
growth, and also aim to ensure that economies of scale are enjoyed throughout the
industry," said the consortium in a statement. 



To be included in the arrangement are other industry organisations such as 3GPP
and the WAP Forum. The deal is important for more than just interoperability
reasons. It is also expected to offer mobile operators, systems integrators, IT
suppliers, terminal manufacturers and application developers new avenues of
growth. It is thought that an open standard environment in the wireless world,
like in the computer world, will make the development of new technologies faster,
easier and universal. 



"This initiative is all about making sure that we stretch the market potential
of future mobile services to the maximum," said Jorma Ollila, chairman and chief
executive officer of Nokia. "By starting this initiative, the industry leaders
are coming together to realize the growth opportunity of the decade."



The initiative comes as the industry is suffering from a fairly significant
decline in sales. Additionally, setbacks and skyrocketing costs have seen 3G and
GPRS roll-outs slow down, and now analysts are beginning to question when the
promised revenues from these new services, or any kind of data services, will
come. An open standards environment for all mobile technologies could prove to be
the catalyst the industry needs to takeoff in the next decade.