Chief executives from some of the world's largest mobile phone companies agreed yesterday to share standards and strategies for second and third-generation (3G) mobile communications.
Gathered at the industry-backed GSM Association (GSMA) conference in Istanbul, Turkey, members representing 530 network operators and 750 million users in 180 countries voted to make major changes to the association's governance and direction.
The vote means that the association will now be run by a 21-member board, including chief executives from 12 of the world's largest mobile operators such as China Telecom, China Mobile and Hutchison Telecom.
GSMA deputy chairman Craig Ehrlich said the board's new-found influence would enable it to influence handset manufacturers and help turnaround the battered telecom industry.
'We have seen precipitous drops in our stock values, yet we have a great story. Our industry is still one of the few industries in the world that is growing across the board in double digits in subscriber growth and things like that. There aren't a lot of industries in the world with such a success story,' he said.
'I actually think it is quite historic because what we've done is taken the 12 largest operators in the world [and] with nine other operators, [we] will be geographically diverse, small- to medium-sized, as well as the new 3G players like Hutchison.'