LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif., June 17, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- The OTA Flash Forum, a special interest group addressing the technical and operational issues facing over-the-air (OTA) management of mobile devices, today announced several new members including: ALLTEL, mFormation, Mobile Diagnostix, Sprint, US Cellular and WDSGlobal.
A major objective of the OTA Flash Forum is to contribute technical specifications for consideration by industry standards bodies, such as the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). The Forum's first submission to the OMA, the Firmware Update Protocol Specification, was adopted by the OMA Device Management Working Group as the baseline for an emerging OMA firmware update standard.
"Since its inception one year ago, the OTA Flash Forum has made great progress in identifying common needs for OTA software updates, collaborating on technical recommendations, and documenting best practices," said Gene Wang, CEO of Bitfone and chairman of the OTA Flash Forum. "Our expanding membership illustrates the growing importance of OTA technology in today's wireless environment, and we encourage other carriers, handset manufacturers and wireless solution providers to join us in our efforts to solve the many deployment challenges of mobile device management."
The OTA Flash Forum, founded in 2003 by Bitfone Corporation, Gemplus, Motorola, Orange, and T-Mobile USA, recently completed its seventh meeting on June 16, 2004, in Bellevue, Washington. WDSGlobal hosted the meeting, which addressed such topics as interoperability, end-to-end security, firmware managed objects, and the expanding role for smart cards in OTA device management.
About OTA Flash Forum
The OTA Flash Forum is an open membership special interest group formed to foster the worldwide development, implementation and use of over-the-air (OTA) software updates for mobile devices. The OTA Flash Forum consists of leading carrier, manufacturer and solution provider companies which seek to promote widespread adoption of standards-based OTA update technology and contribute to the evolution of OTA services and applications in support of broader device management strategies. Founding members Bitfone, Gemplus, Motorola, Orange and T-Mobile USA initiated the OTA Flash Forum in June of 2003. For more information, visit www.otaflashforum.org.