Listen to this articleMobile operators increasingly rely on open source software when building and maintaining their platforms. In addition to being relatively inexpensive to leverage and enabling provisioning and operating at scale, open source software is a driver of innovation and associated new capabilities.
China Mobile, the largest mobile operator in the world with more than 990 million subscribers, is a significant user, contributor and supporter of open source. To demonstrate its commitment to open source and work with others to protect the community from patent aggression, China Mobile has joined the Open Invention Network. As the first Chinese telecom operator to be an OIN member, China Mobile is looking to ensure additional wireless telecommunications services industry innovation.
“China Mobile is committed to becoming a world-class information services and sci-tech innovation enterprise, and understands that Linux System and open source technology is a cornerstone to drive technological innovation and accelerate service innovation,” said Jia Liu, Deputy General Manager of Science and Technology Innovation Department of China Mobile. “After joining OIN, China Mobile will not only continue to support the innovative practice of open source projects, but also work closely with OIN and its members to promote the high-level implementation of the Linux System and open source technology, and maintain the healthy development of the open source ecosystem.”
Open Invention Network is the only institution focused on mitigating patent risk in open source software. It creates a patent “no fly zone” for foundational open source software that protects developers, distributors and users, while ensuring continued OSS adoption and innovation. Open Invention Network is supported financially by IBM, Google, Philips, NEC Sony, SUSE and Toyota.
“Wireline and wireless computing and telecommunications networks are instrumental in improving the standard of living for everyone in the world. In order to increase the pace of innovation, industry leaders worldwide are leveraging the collaborative power of open source,” said Keith Bergelt, CEO of Open Invention Network. “We are pleased to have a global leader like China Mobile join OIN. We believe their participation serves as an example for all mobile services vendors in supporting patent non-aggression in open source.”
Other leading Chinese companies to have joined the Open Invention Network community are Alibaba, Ant Group, ByteDance, BYD, JD.com, Huawei and Tencent.
