Background to WAC

The evolution of the mobile phone into a computing and application device has progressed rapidly in the last decade and resulted in a fragmented set of device operating systems which target both smartphones and feature phones. This is in contrast with the PC evolution which has one dominant Operating System and a small number of other niche OS, of which Linux and Mac OS are the largest. In the PC ecosystem, we have also now come to see the Web as a significant application platform and equalizer, using Internet standards to enable the browser to provide well supported applications in multiple environments.

The convergence of technologies has led to the integration of more Internet based features onto mobile devices. However, without a set of core standards defining the necessary interfaces and security to drive web services on mobile phones, fragmentation has been evident on many new devices. Various initiatives have been started to remove or reduce this fragmentation including BONDI, JIL and GSMA OneAPI.

The progress of these initiatives has been significant, resulting in a massive convergence of manufacturers and operators towards a reduced set of technologies and standards. The success of these initiatives really is establishing the basis for a developer to write an application which can run on many different devices and across multiple Operating Systems. WAC is intended to increase the scale and scope of the core standards and interfaces. It is in this context that WAC has been created.

The Wholesale Applications Community sets out to 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.

Background reading and media

The documents and media links below will provide you with more background and information about WAC.