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Carrier alliance updates work on mobile-phone interface

LONDON-A global alliance of wireless carriers that is working to define mobile-phone interface standards said it has added new members and outlined its work to date.

The Open Mobile Terminal Platform Ltd. group, which includes heavyweights such as Vodafone Group plc, NTT DoCoMo Inc., Orange, Telefonica Moviles and T-Mobile International, formed in late June.

Companies that have recently joined include additional wireless carriers Hutchison 3G, Spain’s Amena, France’s SFR Cegetel, Telenor and KPN Mobile. In addition, mobile suppliers Freescale, Danger, Esmertec, Motorola, SKY MobileMedia, Insignia, Nokia, Tao Group, Philips Electronics, TTPCom, SavaJe Technologies, STMicroelectronics and Sun Microsystems joined the group.

OMTP said it has begun work on five initial projects: platform definition and realization, specification of a Java core software platform, specification of a technology-agnostic core software platform, identification of hardware requirements and defragmentation, and specification of a user experience platform.

Analyst group Ovum said when the group was formed that its requirements probably would not impact wireless devices for at least 18 months and OMTP’s aim is to work with vendors rather than against them.

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