Two dozen telecoms operators have joined forces to build the world's first open platform that delivers applications to all mobile phone users. The initiative, operating under the The Wholesale Applications Community banner and revealed at the Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, will mean a broader choice of apps and services available on the widest choice of handsets, claims the alliance.

América Móvil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, mobilkom austria group, MTN Group, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Softbank Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, VimpelCom, Vodafone and Wind are committed to create an ecosystem for the development and distribution of mobile and internet applications irrespective of device or technology.

Together, these operators have access to over three billion customers around the world. The GSMA and three of the world's largest device manufacturers - LG Electronics, Samsung and Sony Ericsson - fully support this initiative.

The Wholesale Applications Community is on a mission to unite a 'fragmented' marketplace and create an open industry platform that, claims the alliance, benefits everybody from applications developers and network operators to mobile phone users.

The alliance's stated goal is to create a wholesale applications ecosystem that - from day one - will establish a simple route to market for developers to deliver the latest innovative applications and services to the widest possible base of customers around the world. In the immediate future the alliance will seek to unite members' developer communities and create a single, harmonised point of entry to make it easy for developers to join.

"The GSMA is fully supportive the Wholesale Applications Community, which will build a new, open ecosystem to spur the creation of applications that can be used regardless of device, operating system or operator," said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board, GSMA."

Jonathan Arber, Senior Research Analyst at independent analyst house, IDC, added: "Attracting and retaining developers is vital for any application store offering to succeed. However, mobile application developers currently face a high level of fragmentation in the industry, in terms of both technology platforms, and individual operators' working practices.

"Developers want to meet the largest possible addressable market, as efficiently and painlessly as possible, and the Wholesale Applications Community initiative can meet these criteria by providing a simple, single point of access to a large number of operator storefronts. The initiative should also help to drive uptake of existing, open standards among developers, operators and manufacturers, thereby reducing fragmentation and benefiting the whole industry."

(With thanks to Comms Dealer for the Article: Original is here.)