Mobile ecosystem group grows to 40 members

A powerful grouping of mobile operators has been augmented with the addition of 13 companies of various types but mainly made up of those providing software, chips and other building blocks for mobile.

The Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) was first announced in June last year after rumours of operators getting together to speak with a single voice. Founding members included mmO2, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone as well as Smart Communications from the Philippines, Spain's Telefonica Moviles and Italy's TIM.

These players all joined as members. Today sees Ericsson Mobile Platforms join as a sponsor, alongside existing sponsors such as Motorola, Nokia, SavaJe, Siemens and Sun and a list of 11 vendors in the advisor category. They are: Aplix, Axalto, Infineon Technologies, PalmSource, Qualcomm, SmartTrust, Sony Ericsson, SurfKitchen, Symbian, Texas Instruments and Turkcell. The company Mobile Innovation joins as an associate, in the fourth tier of the grouping.

The stated aim of the OMTP is consistency across different platforms and devices but with the ability for operators still to customise terminals.

Mats Nilsson has been appointed OMTP managing director. He said in a statement: "We are now positioned - thanks to our new and existing members and participants - as a real centre of influence in the mobile community and we expect the benefits of our work to begin having an impact on the mobile consumer over the coming months.”