BT,
AT&T and
Microsoft
announced Thursday that the three industry majors will cooperate in developing new wireless Internet applications.
The new applications will be based on Microsoft’s
platform for mobile data services and deployed
on BT’s and AT&T’s high-speed mobile data
networks. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Saying that applications are key to customers,
Sohail Qadri, director of BT mobility, said the
cooperation between the three companies would
equip users with true multimedia capability
while on the move.
“Together we will drive the growth of innovative
services that have the potential to improve business
competitiveness and make day-to-day communications
much easier,” said Qadri.
BT and Microsoft have already been collaborating
to develop corporate and consumer mobile applications
for use on existing mobile networks. The new
agreement extends the relationship into the
broadband mobile arena.
Likewise, BT has an existing alliance with
AT&T, the two companies’ Advance network
of mobile communications services reaching
48 million subscribers in over 15 countries.
As part of the agreement, Microsoft will dedicate
a development team to the project, with the aim
of creating mobile applications for AT&T’s
and BT’s third-generation networks.
The result will be advanced networks that have
seamless global roaming capabilities and applications
that will run over high-speed wireless Internet
protocol (IP) services.
In the interim, before the third-generation networks
come onstream, the applications will be deployed
over AT&T’s existing Cellular Digital Packet
Data (CDPD) network and BT’s second-generation
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network.
