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Wireless industry gets yet another 'standards body'

Can the mobile world do more than talk and text? Is there a future in mobile data? A new ginger group is trying to persuade the phone networks that there is life outside today's hand-set world.

The new body is the Open Mobile Alliance, and its formation was finally agreed in the small hours of Thursday night or Friday morning during the Bluetooth Congress in Amsterdam. Its official aim is "to foster worldwide growth in the mobile services market."

The GSM Association, which reckons itself to be "the leading representative body for the world's wireless network operators," has responded with a press release in which it welcomed the formation of the OMA.

“The GSMA welcomes the consolidation of many standards groups into one unified entity, structure and process that we believe will streamline industry efforts and avoid fragmentation of the development of wireless data requirements and standards,†said Jim Pratt, Chairman of the GSM Association. â€We believe that this is an extremely positive development for the industry - global interoperability of services and applications via the unification of standards is key to the creation of seamless, wireless services for consumers everywhere,†he said.

At this stage, it isn't altogether clear who is pushing, and who is pulling. Many members came away from the session saying that this would "wake up" the sleepy corporate meeting-holders of the GSM association - the phone operators. But the GSMA has been hard at work during the formation of the OMA.

This was, says the GSMA: "to ensure that the voice of the operator community is an integral part of the new Alliance." An attempt, say some, to rein in the over-enthusiasm of people who think mobile data might be something to do with networks that aren't owned by phone operators. Others say it's an attempt to expand the mobile operators' horizons.

The formation of the Open Mobile Alliance is not intended to conflict with the GSMA's existing M-Services Initiative. M-Services was developed "to avoid fragmentation of wireless data services" by defining clear operator requirements for terminals, clarifying the technology enablers based on open standards. The new OMA focuses on standards for the whole value chain, providing end-to-end interoperability from enabling technologies, says the announcement.

The press release goes on to say: "As a Standards Development Organisation, OMA now provides a focal point for the GSMA's M-Services Interest Group to input Operator Requirements." And it quotes Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA, saying: “We are particularly pleased to note that OMA has a Requirements Group for input of these requirements, and this is we believe is a major step in the right direction.â€

For more information, please contact: Mark Smith who is Director of Communications at the GSM Association.