New Global Organization, the Open Mobile Alliance, Formed to Foster Worldwide Growth in the Mobile Services Market

The world’s leading mobile operators, device and network suppliers, information technology companies and content providers are joining forces to achieve open standards and ensure interoperability


VANCOUVER, June 12, 2002 — Nearly 200 of the world’s leading mobile operators, device and network suppliers, information technology companies and content providers announced the formation of a new, global organization called the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA).

The Open Mobile Architecture initiative and WAP Forum have joined to form the foundation for this new organization and the Location Interoperability Forum (LIF), MMS Interoperability Group (MMS-IOP), SyncML Initiative Ltd. and Wireless Village initiative, through Memorandums of Understanding, announce their intent to consolidate with the Open Mobile Alliance. Other industry fora focusing on mobile service specifications are also welcome to join.

The Open Mobile Alliance will collect market requirements and define specifications designed to remove barriers to interoperability and accelerate the development and adoption of a variety of new, enhanced mobile information, communication and entertainment services and applications. The definition of these common specifications and the testing of interoperability will promote competition through innovation and differentiation, while ensuring the interoperability of mobile services across markets, terminals and operators, throughout the entire value chain.

The charter for the Open Mobile Alliance is to:
- Deliver responsive and high-quality open standards and specifications based upon market and customer requirements.
- Establish centers of excellence for best practices and conduct interoperability testing (IOT), including multi-standard interoperability to ensure seamless user experience.
- Create and promote a common industry view on an architectural framework.
- Be the catalyst for the consolidation of standards fora and work in conjunction with other existing standards organizations and groups such as IETF, 3GPP, 3GPP2, W3C, JCP.

"The Open Mobile Alliance reflects a very welcome new attitude in the mobile industry. This recognizes the vital role of the eco-system in realizing the potential of mobile services. An individual technology, product, vendor or operator will have little success without engaging all aspects of the mobile value chain -- devices, networks, applications, and content. Established as an alliance of alliances, the OMA promises to sweep away the barriers of information sharing, and simplify the multi-dimensional interactions required to build and deploy mobile services," stated Mark Winther, Group Vice President, Worldwide Telecommunications, IDC.

"The Open Mobile Alliance is designed to boost market growth by enabling non-fragmented, interoperable mobile services. The Open Mobile Architecture initiative, launched last November, demonstrated unprecedented momentum in bringing together mobile industry leaders and defining the starting points for a uniform mobile services platform. We are now excited about consolidating these efforts to form the Open Mobile Alliance and to carry on important industry-wide specification work," said Pertti Korhonen, Senior Vice President, Mobile Software, Nokia, representing supporters of the Open Mobile Architecture initiative.

"The Open Mobile Alliance represents an evolution within the wireless industry, encouraging a more complete, end-to-end approach through greater participation from all members of the value chain," said Jerry Upton, Vice President, Motorola and Chairman of the WAP Forum’s Board of Directors. "The members of the WAP Forum have played key roles in the mobile industry and are poised, with the supporters of the Open Mobile Architecture initiative, to lead the way into its next phase of development. We are confident the Open Mobile Alliance will demonstrate great success in driving consolidated standardization work, based upon broad based market and customer requirements."

The work previously handled within the Open Mobile Architecture initiative and the WAP Forum will be continued within the new Open Mobile Alliance. The WAP Forum members at their annual general meeting on June 10th, ratified changes in their articles to fully support the creation of the Open Mobile Alliance. Details on the consolidation of other industry initiatives will be announced as soon as relevant contracts on consolidation are finalized.

About the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA)
The Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) delivers open standards for the mobile industry, helping to create interoperable services which work across countries, operators and mobile terminals and are driven by users’ needs. To expand the mobile market, companies supporting the Open Mobile Alliance will work to stimulate the fast and wide adoption of a variety of new, enhanced mobile information, communication and entertainment services. The Open Mobile Alliance includes all key elements of the wireless value chain, and contributes to the timely and efficient introduction of services and applications. For more information, please visit www.openmobilealliance.org

SyncML Initiative, Ltd.
www.syncml.org

Location Interoperability Forum
www.locationforum.org

Wireless Village initiative
www.wireless-village.org

The Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) name and logo are trademarks of Open Mobile Alliance Ltd.
Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or trade names of their respective owners.

Press Contacts:

Diane Schreiber
Sparkpr
415-962-8200 x231
diane@sparkpr.com

Note to editors: See attached list of Open Mobile Alliance Supporters

Current Open Mobile Alliance Members and Supporters

4thpass Inc.
Access Co., Ltd (Berlin: 4813. BE)
Aether Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: AETH)
Akumiitti Ltd
Alcatel (NYSE: ALA)
America Online, Incorporated (NYSE: AOL)
Aplix Corporation
ArgoGroup
Aspiro (Stockholm: ASP.ST)
AT&T Wireless (NYSE: AWE)
AU-System
Baltimore Technologies (London: BLM)
Banksys
BEA Systems (Nasdaq: BEAS)
Bell Canada (Nasdaq: BCICF)
Borland Software Corporation (Nasdaq: BORL)
Bosch (Frankfurt: 6041.F)/ (Berlin: 6041.BE) / (XETR: 6041.DE)
Bouygues Telecom (Paris: BOUY)
BSI Co., Ltd.
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (F.CEY)
Captaris (Nasdaq: CAPA)
Cegetel/SFR "Société Française du Radiotéléphone"
Cellnext Solutions Limited
Certicom Corporation (Nasdaq: CERT)
CETECOM GmbH
Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.(NYSE: SCH)
China Mobile (NYSE: CHL)
Cingular Wireless
Citrix Systems Inc (Nasdaq: CTXS)
CMG Wireless Data Solutions B.V.(CMG)
CoCoNet AG
Colibria AS
Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: HPQ)
Comverse (Nasdaq: CMVT)
Condat A/S (CDGT)
Corel Corporation (Nasdaq: CORL)
Credit Suisse e-Business
DENSO Corporation (6902)
Deutsche Telekom Mobilnet GmbH (NYSE: DT)
DHL Worldwide Network NV/SA
Discretix Technologies Ltd.
Diversinet Corp. (Nasdaq: DVNT)
Documentum, Inc.(Nasdaq: DCTM)
Entrust (Nasdaq: ENTU)
E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH
Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERICY)
ETRI Electronic and Telecommunications Research Institute Europe
Exomi Oy
Extended Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: XTND)
EZOS
Faith, Inc. (FAITF)
FarEasTone Telecommmunications Co., Ltd
FEELINGK Co., Ltd.
Fenestrae B.V.
Finnet-liitto ry
FolloWAP, Inc.
Fujitsu (PKN: FJSUF.PK)
fusionOne
Gemplus (Nasdaq: GEMP)
Giesecke & Devrient GmbH
Glenayre Electronics (Nasdaq: GEMS)
GSM Association
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ)
Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT)
Hutchison (HTA)
IBM (NYSE: IBM)
Infineon Technologies AG (NYSE: IFX)
Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC)
IrisCube SpA
ITOCHU TECHNO-SCIENCE Corp. (Dusseldorf: 4739.D)/ (Munich: 4739.MU)/ (Stuttgart: 4739. SG)
Jinny Software Ltd.
KDDI Corporation (Berlin: 9433.BE)/(Dusseldorf 9433.D)/(XETR:9433.DE) /(Frankfurt: 9433.F)/ (Munich: 9433.MU)/ (Stuttgart: 9433.SG)
Kenwood Corporation (Berlin: TRIT.BE)/ (XETR: TRIT.DE)/ (Frankfurt: TRIT.F)/(Munich: TRIT.MU)/ (Stuttgart: TRIT.SG) /(XETR: TRITz.DE)/(Frankfurt: TRITz.F)
KPN (NYSE: KPN)
Kyocera Corporation (NYSE: KYO)
LG Electrontics Inc. (KSE: 66570.KS)/(KSE: 66570.KS)/(PNK:LGEGF.PK)
LightSurf Technologies, Inc.
Locus Corporation (Kosdaq: 34600.KQ)
Logica (London: LOG.L)
Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU)
MasterCard International Inc.
Materna GmbH Information & Communications
Matsushita Communication Industrial Co., Ltd (PNK: MSUSF.PK)
Maxon Telecom A/S (09890)
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)
Mitsubishi Electric (NYSE: MTF)
Mitsui & Co, Ltd. (Nasdaq: MITSY)
mm02 (NYSE: OOM)
Mobile Economy Ltd.
Mobileaware Limited
mobileID, Inc.
MobileSpear, Inc.
Mobileum, Inc.
Motorola (NYSE: MOT)
NEC (Nasdaq: NIPNY)
Neomar
Nextel Communications Inc (Nasdaq: NXTL)
Niragongo Inc.
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd (Nasdaq: NSANY)
Nokia (NYSE: NOK)
Nordea Bank
Novell Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL)
NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc.
NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM)
Oberthur Card Systems
Openwave (Nasdaq: OPWV)
Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL)
Orange SA (ORA)
ORGA Kartensysteme Gmbh
Panasonic
Peramon Technology Ltd.
Philips Consumer Electronics
PIONEER Corporation (NYSE: PIO)
Pixo, Inc.
Proximus
PUMATECH, Inc (Nasdaq: PUMA)
Pure Matrix, Inc.
QUALCOMM, Inc (Nasdaq: QCOM)
Radiolinja Oy
Research In Motion Limited (Nasdaq: RIMM)
Rogers Wireless Inc. (NYSE: RCN)
RSA Security Inc. (Nasdaq: RSAS)
S.E.S.A. Software und Systeme AG
SAGEM (SAG)
Samsung Electronics (SAME)
SAS (Stockholm: SASD.PK)
Schlumberger Systems (SLB)
SEC Co. Ltd.
Sendo
Setec Oy
Seven
SHARP Corporation (SHRP)
Siemens AG (NYSE: SI)
Sierra Wireless (Nasdaq: SWIR)
SignalSoft Corporation (Nasdaq: SGSF)
Singtel Optus Pty. Ltd.
SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM)
SKY THINK SYSTEM Co., Ltd.
Smarttrust
Sonera Corporation (Nasdaq: SNRA)
Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE)
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, AB
SPEEDWARE Corporation (SPW)
Sprint Spectrum L.P. (NYSE:FON)
ST Microelectronics (STM)
StarMedia Networks, Inc. (OTC: STRM)
Stellent, Inc. (Nasdaq: STEL)
Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW)
Sybase, Inc. (NYSE:SY)
Symbian
Tecnomen
Telecom Italia Mobile (PNK: TIIAF.PK )
Telecommunication Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSYS)
Telefonica Moviles (NYSE: TEM)
Telenor Mobil (NASDAQQ:TELN)
Telia Mobile AB (PNK: TLAAF.PK)
Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN)
The Walt Disney Company Limited (NYSE: DIS)
T-Mobile UK
T-Motion PLC
T-Online International AG (TOIG)
Toshiba (Tokyo: 6502)
TrustLink AB
TTP Communications Ltd
Tu-Ka Cellular Tokyo Inc. (TTC)
TURKCELL (NYSE: TKC)
Ubicco
UBS AG (NYSE: UBS)
Universal Communication Platform ag
Varetis AG (Frankfurt: VRI)
VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSN)
Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ)
Visa International
Vizzavi - Europe
Vodafone (NYSE: VOD)
Voicestream Wireless
VTT Information Technology
Webraska Mobile Technologies
Wireless Data Services
XFERA Moviles S.A.
Yamaha Corporation (7591)
ZION Limited
ZoomON AB
Zurich Cantonalbank