South Korea’s SK Telecom, Korea Telecom and LG U+ will be working together to create a single Korea-specific Wholesale Application Community (WAC) platform scheduled to go live later this year.
The project will be supported by consulting, integrating and project management provided by HP.
Having a common platform will enable the three Korean carriers to deliver WAC applications to their mobile customers via their respective app stores. WAC applications are expected to allow users across different networks to share information such as location and availability.
“The Korea-WAC approach creates growth opportunities for communications services providers and application developers, that will ultimately enhance the mobile experience for millions of users,” said Erwan Menard, vice president and general manager of HP’s communications and media solutions unit.
The WAC initiative is widely seen as being operators’ potential competitive response to the lucrative app store scene currently dominated by Apple and Google.
Philippines’ Globe Telecom recently launched a WAC enabled app store in conjunction with Huawei.
The WAC project was announced last year and now comprises 68 members such as China Mobile, MTS, Orange, Smart, Telefonica and Vodafone. Huawei, LG Electronics, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and ZTE make up the devices side of the alliance.
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