The Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) forum, an operator-sponsored forum, has released a set of guidelines for mobile terminals such as PDAs and smartphones. The purpose of the guidelines is to minimize fragmentation across handsets.

The guidelines OMTP Hardware Requirements And Defragmentation, Trusted Environment (PDF), defines a list of requirements for a trusted environment, as defined by the OMTP Hardware Working Group. The document has “a general objective to help in defining terminal requirements and to allow development and deployment of new services as well as de-fragmenting secure requirements offered within terminals”.

From the OMTP Hardware Requirements And Defragmentation, Trusted Environment document:

  • “The User Equipment (UE) is a handheld, battery-powered electronic device that provides voice and/or data communication services to an individual user.
  • The UE may optionally provide data storage and offline information processing capabilities for the user.
  • The UE generally contains one or more microprocessors, volatile RAM and non-volatile storage that are electronically accessible to those microprocessors, and the necessary RF electronics to communicate via a standard wireless telecommunication network such as GSM or UMTS as well as interfaces toward (U)SIM.
  • The UE may also be capable of communicating over RF or IR interfaces that are not part of a standard wireless telecommunication network (e.g.; Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11, IRDA).
  • Typically the UE will incorporate a speaker and microphone that allow a user to conduct voice communications, but these facilities may optionally be provided via wired or wireless interfaces to a separate headphone and microphone.
  • The UE may contain a digital display, a keypad and various other buttons, a slot for removable non-volatile media, a digital interface port, a camera, a GPS unit, or other consumer electronics features.
  • The microprocessors within the UE execute software that implements various features of the UE, usually including the communications protocols appropriate to the wireless telecommunications network.
  • The UE boots up by first executing software resident in non-volatile memory, but may thereafter execute software from volatile RAM.
  • The same microprocessor may execute both telecommunications software and applications software that is not related to telecommunications.”

The document defines requirements for (U)SIM, debug port, mobile device ID, DRM, booing, binding and flash updates.

The OMTP forum currently consists of Cingular Wireless, Hutchison 3G, Orange, SK Telecom, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, T-Mobile and Vodafone, AOL, Ericsson, Freescale, Motorola, Nokia, and Spansion, and other participants from all parts of the industry; including Application software, hardware and the OS space. The OMTP is operator driven.

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