HONG KONG, November 16, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), an alliance of telecommunications companies committed to building an open applications platform, today announced an additional nine new members to the organisation, including two significant new OEMs as well as companies from the mobile community, bringing the total membership to 57. New members to the organisation include Aepona, Camber Tech Inc (BVI) Limited, GClue, Gemalto, Infraware, KT Innotz, Sharp and Sony Ericsson as Associate members while the Russian operator VimpelCom has joined as an Operator Member. Additionally, the GSMA's OneAPI has also been confirmed as the standard to be used by WAC operators for the exposure of network APIs.

Peters Suh, CEO of WAC, commented "We're of course delighted to see more members joining WAC - it continues to demonstrate the very strong interest that we're seeing from companies across the ecosystem in providing their customers with choice."

The GSMA OneAPI is a commonly supported set of lightweight and Web-friendly APIs to allow mobile and other network operators to expose useful network information and capabilities to Web application developers. It is designed to reduce the effort and time needed to create applications and content that are portable across mobile operators and is critical in enabling WAC developers to quickly and effectively develop web-based applications that span platforms, devices and operators.

Suh continued, "The GSMA OneAPI makes it easier for web-centric developers to use the information and capabilities provided by mobile operators to create network-enriched applications and services - and exactly meets the WAC requirements for simplicity and effectiveness."

Graham Trickey, Senior Director, GSMA, commented, "The selection of GSMA OneAPI will guarantee its exposure by WAC operators and encourage widespread exposure by other operators, allowing Web application developers to use a common set of network enablers to reach more subscribers more easily. Operator billing is a key feature of GSMA OneAPI, enabling the development of additional revenue opportunities for operators and developers."

Two WAC executives will be delivering presentations at the Mobile Asia Congress, being held this week in Hong Kong. Peters Suh will be taking part in the panel session 'Turning WAC into Cash' on 16th November the App Planet Forum at Mobile Asia Congress, while Erik De Kroon, Vice President, Devices and Products, WAC will be leading a developer work stream in the App Bytes ADCs on 18th November. Presentations on the GSMA OneAPI by TELUS and Axiata will also feature in the Mobile Asia Congress conference programme, and will be included in demonstrations at Stand E50, Hall 3.

About the Wholesale Applications Community

Launched in February 2010, the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) is an open global alliance formed from leading organisations within the telecoms sector. Uniting a fragmented applications marketplace, WAC will create an open industry platform that benefits the entire ecosystem, including applications developers, handset manufacturers, OS owners, network operators and end users.

The Wholesale Applications Community will: -- Accelerate and expand the market for applications - Simplify application development by giving developers the opportunity to write applications that can be deployed across multiple platforms and multiple operators, and address a potential global market of more than 3 billion users. -- Create more compelling applications - Enable developers to utilise both device and network capabilities to create the next generation of applications. -- Provide greater choice for users - Enable portability of applications across devices, operating systems and network operators.

Current WAC members are as follows:

Accenture, Aepona, Alcatel-Lucent, Aplix, America Movil, ASPire, AT&T, Bell Mobility, Borqs, Bougyues Telecom, Camber Tech Inc (BVI) Limited, Capgemini, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, France Telecom, Fujitsu, GClue, Gemalto, Huawei, Hutchison 3 Group, Infraware, Innoace, Intel, KDDI, KT Corporation, KT Innotz, LG Electronics, LG Uplus, LiMo Foundation, MTS, Myriad Group, NTT DOCOMO, Oberthur Technologies, Obigo, Opera Software, Orascom Telecom, Oracle Corporation, Qualcomm Incorporated, Rogers Communications, Samsung, SFR, Sharp, SK Telecom, Smart Communications, SOFTBANK MOBILE, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telekom Austria Group, Telenor, Verizon, Vimpelcom, Vodafone, ZTE and the GSMA.

For a list of members and more information, please go to http://www.wholesaleappcommunity.com.

SOURCE: GSMA

CONTACT: Phil Rawcliffe, +44-07889-320159, press@wholesaleappcommunity.com