London, UK, 1 July 2008, A leading group of mobile operators today unveiled a new initiative to create a blueprint and roadmap for opening up mobile functionality to encourage the development of exciting mobile applications without compromising customer security. The new initiative will be known as BONDI.

Supported by the OMTP members including 3 Group, AT&T, T-Mobile, Telenor, Telefónica, Telecom Italia and Vodafone, BONDI will provide a consistent and secure web services interface that can be used by all web developers across multiple device platforms. This will provide the opportunity for web developers to address a mass market of consumers and to drive the use of data services on mobile.

 
BONDI will harmonise the various open and proprietary ongoing initiatives and this cooperative work will minimise the potential for technology fragmentation in this exciting area. BONDI, under the OMTP umbrella, will contribute towards ongoing standardisation work to help create a new rich web experience for mobile while also ensuring an appropriate degree of protection that will maintain the current high level of trust by mobile phone users.

 
BONDI will expose key handset features to web developers to help them develop more function-rich, user friendly and relevant applications. The new handset software will be engineered in such a way as to prevent fraudulent and malicious activity through unauthorised access to functions or sensitive personal information.
 

Tim Raby. MD OMTP commented, “Users have to be certain when they use the mobile web that their privacy is paramount. The OMTP goal is to ‘enable and protect’ – to enable fantastic new services whilst at the same time protecting the user.”

 
Christian Salbaing, Managing Director, 3 Group said "High speed mobile internet access has been a key component of 3’s flat rate mobile internet strategy.  The development of smarter mobile devices and services is an important step in that strategy and BONDI is key in enabling this to operate across a wide variety of handsets. It also ensures we can provide the necessary security to protect our customers.”

Hank Kafka, vice president, Architecture for AT&T’s wireless unit said, “With a tradition of offering the most cutting-edge devices in the U.S., the potential to deliver innovative new services to our customers is vast.  AT&T is committed to offering the newest and best services, while also protecting our customers and the wireless experience.”

Arnd Gallmann, Senior Vice President Terminal Technology at T-Mobile International added: “Keeping a lid on fragmentation, whilst at the same time enabling new functionality, will encourage more developers to create unique, exciting applications for mobile web 2.0. In turn, this will improve the mobile broadband proposition and greatly enhance the customer experience.”

“Mobile Web 2.0 is an exciting opportunity; the potential for advancement is huge.” said Carlos Melendo, Senior Manager Handsets at Telefonica. “We at Telefonica, are looking forward to seeing BONDI help bring the mobile web close to the capabilities of the PC web.”

 
Luca Tomassini, Executive Vice President Innovation & Business Development for Telecom Italia’s domestic mobile unit, said “With Industry initiatives such as BONDI, Telecom Italia will be able to deliver innovative services to customers and operators will offer web developers a new path to develop innovative technologies for the mobile broadband experience.”

 
Commenting on the latest initiative, Reinhard Kreft, Vodafone's Head of Standardisation and Industry Engagements, said, “With so many diverse mobile devices and operating systems available in today’s marketplace, it can be quite challenging to roll out consistent and compelling new services across such a broad spread. BONDI addresses the need to deliver great services across multiple platforms, whilst ensuring that customers are protected from any risk associated with adopting a more open approach to these systems.”

 
“A really simple way for developers to create rich mobile services & applications, combined with the required security and trust by the parties in the provisioning of them, could really boost the mobile web 2.0”, concluded Stein Hansen, Vice President Group Strategy at Telenor. “BONDI is an important step in that direction.”