Commentary: Working Together, Telecoms Can Ease Bandwidth Crunch

By Hisham Isa, Vice President (Marketing)

Mobile networks are facing a crunch. There's just not enough bandwidth for everything right now. So, we're very pleased to see the launch of a new initiative that aims to make applications more efficient:

The Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) -- consisting of 24 major telecommunications operators including China Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, TeliaSonera and Vodafone -- intends to build the world's first open platform delivering applications to all mobile phone users.

According to WAC's media release, the initiative will mean broader choice for customers -- more innovative applications and services, available on a wider choice of handsets than ever before.

At BuzzCity, we think this is a great example of what can happen when telecoms operators work together to support developers.

I will be monitoring WAC's progress with interest over the next few months. The alliance has the full support of the GSMA and three of the world’s largest device manufacturers – LG Electronics, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. With endorsements like that, it is bound to make an impact. Let's certainly hope so.