OMTP publishes standard, but what is it really securing?

The Open Mobile Terminal Platform group has finally published the security documents it outlined last year, and got the UK home secretary to say what a good thing that is. The OMTP is just an operator talking shop really, no-one is under any obligation to implement the standards they propose, but the operators will look …

[davenewman]

Keeping out the competition

As manufacturers release handsets that can be programmed to do anything you want, on any carrier, the network operators are getting worried.

These standards are designed to keep out open source 'phones like the OpenMoko, prevent the innovative experimentation that has led to the rapid growth of Internet applications, and keep customers paying for expensive services restricted to your network provider.

It is dressed up as security, but aimed at keeping an oligopoly: unless they are merely talking about a Java sandbox model, rather than certifying individual applications.

Right now we need 'phones designed for people who aren't western businessmen or city teenagers - even ones working in multiple scripts, and icons understandable by farmers in villages in Bangladesh.

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when

did Jacqui Smith become qualified to comment on anything IT related?

In the past, she has repeatedly displayed her dire ignorance of anything to do with IT.

If she's in favour of it, I'd exercise some caution.

[Rich]

You won't like this

But WM5 does what I want here.

A mobile app can do just about everything, make calls, look in the SIM, take screenshots. If enabled, the app gets signature checked and it *prompts* if there isn't a valid signature. But if the user wants, it will run happily.

Needs to be dual-core, though.

[Kevin Whitefoot]

More of the crap that Symbian have foisted on us with S60V3

This just benefits the incumbent firms and their favoured software houses. Just as Symbian signing locks out everyone with a good idea but no money. If I own the hardware I should be allowed to run what I like on it.

Let's hope that Android and OpenMoko become widely available and easy to install.

[Andraž Levstik]

When I buy a phone I want to have full control over it...

Hence why I jailbroken and debranded my n95 in the first few hours I had it...

ANY restrictions on what software I'm allowed to run, what content I'm allowed to watch/listen/etc... means that such devices will cause EPIC FAILS.

*quietly waiting for an OpenMoko based handset with a keypad(yes touchscreen IS NOT ENOUGH)*

[druck]

No more Talks

This will break accessibility software such as Talks, which needs to hook in to all sorts of operating system routines, by fair means or foul, in order to gather the information it needs on what has changed on the screen, so it to be spoken to sight impaired users.

[Adrian Midgley]

Not PCs, just Windows.

It isn't PCs that are the source of the battle against malware (or for that matter the source of spam). Linux isn't prone to it, and neither is MacOS/X.

Just Windows.