Mobile Giants Announce United Interface to Lure Cloud Developers

An industry group representing the world's biggest mobile phone operators announced a new united interface that will give developers universal access to all of their networks, speeding up the delivery of new services and products. From a report: The GSMA will introduce the portal, called Open Gateway, at its annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday, its Director General Mats Granryd said in an interview. AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone Group are among the 21 GSMA members that will use the interface. "We have the phenomenal reach down to the base station and out into your pocket," Granryd said. "And that's what we're trying to make available for the developer community to ultimately benefit you as a consumer or you as a business."

fuck me i am supposed to be optimistic

[zlives]

why do i only see spam and privacy issues as the only meaningful gain here?

Re:

[zenith1111]

Possibly more than that, at first glance it also feels like a cartel disguised as a partnership. I am a bit suspicious when I see "industry group representing the world's biggest mobile phone operators" creating something with "Open" in the name.

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[zlives]

i am sure it is not only open but open & secure /s

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[DontBeAMoran]

Indeed. It's going to open our wallet and it's a secure way for them to make even more obscene profits.

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[jacks smirking reven]

This is their attempt to prevent just becoming "dumb pipe" providers because right now that's what most people use the mobile networks for, all the services actually come from other companies.

They may not know that it's too late and they should just embrace being dumb pipes.

Mega business says wants hand in my pocket.

[io333]

OK

China Mobile

[RitchCraft]

Woohoo! Sign me up. Nothing better than China reaching into my pocket.

Fooled me once ...

[PPH]

... when I developed applications for 3G systems. Never again.

What...what do they have again?

[Voyager529]

App developers already have push notifications, network access, storage allocation, and a bevy of sensor data, including location data.

Exactly what are the cell companies offering that devs don't have access to already, or that cellcos can provide better?

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[TwistedGreen]

I guess they can bypass all the app permissions and just hand over the individual subscriber's entire life history, for a price.

Re:

[zlives]

o nice, so other than NSA and CCP who else is their client

Carriers, beware

[DontBeAMoran]

The more you tighten your grip, the more you risk making yourselves irrelevant.

About marketing and advertising, probably

[udittmer]

There just has to be a connection to the newly announced common marketing platform the European giants have recently formed, and which has been approved by the EU: https://ec.europa.eu/commissio... [europa.eu]. That one, of course, is all about GDPR-compliant marketing and advertising. Curious to see what this one will be about.

Subtext is louder than the written words

[OfMiceAndMenus]

They're going to use it to advertise to you. That's what every mention of the tech, system, and use just scream from everyone involved.

Just stop. Do something useful.