Koreas wireless standards body has selected Sun Microsystems Inc.s Mobile Java for the countrys next-generation wireless Internet platform. The organization and Koreas leading mobile phone providers SK Telecom, KTF and LG Telecom have announced a partnership with Sun to develop the next major version of Koreas Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability (WIPI), share technology licensing and make inroads into other world markets.
The alliance consists of agreements between the Korea Wireless Internet Standardization Forum (KWISF), SK Telecom, KTF, LG Telecom and Sun. Simultaneously, Sun retracted a request filed with the U.S. Trade Representative to put Korea on a so-called Prior Watch List for alleged unfair trade practices.
Under the partnership, KWISF will be able to market the next-generation WIPI. KWISF will also oversee the development of the platform, which will be co-developed with Sun. To help KWISF develop WIPI, Sun is granting its partners permanent free licenses for its development tools, development materials and Java certified tools. In turn, KWISF has agreed to give Sun certain intellectual property right credits for the developed materials.
Until now, disparities between the platforms used by the three Korean carriers have hampered content providers and limited communication between users on different networks. The new WIPI standards are expected to eliminate these incompatibilities.
The next-generation WIPI will come on the heels of WIPI 1.0, which was released last year. Mobile phones featuring WIPI 1.1 are slated to be announced later this month.
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