Mobile operators waltz into another joint initiative

AS IF WE didn't have enough mobile industry forums already, along comes another one in the shape of the OMTP group. Its objective is to define the requirements for an open mobile terminal platform (OMTP).

Perhaps the most interesting aspect is the names of the founding members which include mmO2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone. In other words all of the UK's big names particularly since Hutchinson/3 is on the list of potential new joiners along with Amena, KPN, One Austria, SFR and Telenor.

The other founders include big shots such as NTT DoCoMo of Japan, Smart Communications of the Philippines, Telefónica Móviles of Spain and TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile).

The group is based in Blighty (London), too. Its aims are somewhat strange, though. The objective is to be technology neutral which means that the platform will have to run on top of Symbian, Linux, and even Windows Mobile. Do handsets really need another layer of software?

On the positive side, the idea appears to allow the operators to customise handsets to their services in a way which is consistent across all makes of handset. So if you swap from a Nokia to an LG, it shouldn't matter.

The closest initiative to this was last September's deal between Symbian and DoCoMo. That enabled DoCoMo to fine tune Symbian code to its requirements and then hand that code to handset manufacturers. The problem with the OMTP group is that it might slow down development times rather than speed them up. µ