Formation of Carrier Advisory Group for Ubuntu mobile development

• Canonical announces Carrier Advisory Group (CAG) with founding members: Deutsche Telekom, Everything Everywhere, Korea Telecom, Telecom Italia, LG UPlus, Portugal Telecom, SK Telecom and the leading Spanish international carrier.
• CAG is a forum for mobile operators to influence the development of Ubuntu for smartphones.

Canonical today announces the formation of a Carrier Advisory Group (CAG) that will shape Ubuntu for the mobile industry. Founding members of the CAG are Deutsche Telekom, Everything Everywhere, Korea Telecom, Telecom Italia, LG UPlus, Portugal Telecom, SK Telecom and the leading Spanish international carrier. Only CAG members will have access to early information about Ubuntu and device manufacturer plans to support the OS, as well as the opportunity to be a launch partner for Ubuntu on smartphones.

The CAG is independently chaired by David Wood who has 25 years of experience in the mobile industry. He is currently Chair at London Futurists and and has served on the board of directors of Symbian and the Open Mobile Alliance. Wood commented: “The mobile industry remains on the lookout for an independent platform that enables innovation and differentiation. Ubuntu brings a time-tested operating system and an attractive user experience, as well as a community of developers ready to apply enterprise-grade skills in the creation of applications. The Carrier Advisory Group will have ample opportunity to influence the Ubuntu roadmap, and take full advantage of the potential in this emerging platform.”

The CAG will hold regular meetings to map out out key areas of the Ubuntu mobile platform and discuss its developments. Topics for discussion will include:

• Differentiation for OEMs and operators
• Developer ecosystems and application portability from Android and Blackberry
• HTML5 standards, performance and compatibility
• Marketplaces for apps, content and services
• Revenue share models for publishers, operators and OEMs
• Payment mechanisms and standards
• Platform fragmentation
• Consumer and enterprise market segments and positioning

Ubuntu’s extensive developer community has grown significantly since the launch of Ubuntu on mobile and the OS is already being widely tested by developers on a variety of existing devices. “Leading ISVs are committing to support Ubuntu at launch, to take advantage of a highly energised and vocal base of developers and early adopters and to reach new markets,” said Cristian Parrino, VP Mobile and Online Services at Canonical.

“The CAG is an important partnership between Canonical and the mobile industry,” said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical. “While Ubuntu has gained tremendous traction in both cloud and PC environments, we recognise the complex dynamics of the mobile market and so the CAG allows us to draw on the insights and support of such a thoughtful and experienced group of industry partners. We aim to deliver a platform that delights everyone who touches it and meets industry requirements of quality, security, manageability and differentiation.”

Invitations are extended to any national or multinational carrier who wishes to join the CAG. The group will close to new members at the end of July. Carriers interested in further information about CAG membership may contact Canonical directly at https://pages.canonical.com/carrier-advisory-group-contact-us.html. For more information please visit www.ubuntu.com/phone/carrier-advisory-group.