Home » Firefox OS gets support from 18 major carriers

Firefox OS gets support from 18 major carriers

Written By Ronnie Bulaong
Published • February 25th, 2013
Mobile
6 Comments

In addition to showcasing two Firefox OS handsets (Alcatel One Touch Fire and ZTE Fire) in a conference held in Mobile World Congress, Mozilla has recently announced the 18 telcos that they’ve teamed up with to aid them in their Open Web HTML5 efforts.

Among these carriers is Smart Communications., which will be responsible for bringing the highly anticipated handset/s to the local scene. Emmanuel Lorenzana, Executive VP and Head of Smart’s wireless consumer division, is clearly ecstatic to be part of this venture stating that “Firefox’s entry to the mobile phone market will bring customer experience to another level with lower cost barrier to ownership and more choices in terms of devices and mobile apps. This will also foster a healthier and more competitive developer community. We’re very keen to see a vibrant ecosystem based on HTML5 technology such as Firefox OS.”

firefox

Other telcos who’ve joined in on the act are América Móvil (Latin America), China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison Three Group, KDDI (Japan), KT, MegaFon (Russia), Qtel, SingTel, Sprint (USA), Telecom Italia Group, Telefónica (Brazil), Telenor (Eastern Europe and some parts of Asia), Telstra, TMN (Portugal) and VimpelCom (Russia).

Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs has not been shy in stating that although they’ve partnered with big carriers that cater to developed countries, their efforts will initially be focused on emerging markets as they see a lot of potential for growth in these areas. This explains why the company has partnered with device manufacturers (Alcatel, Huawei, LG and ZTE) that have been known for producing low-cost handsets.

alcatel one touch fire

During the announcement, Kovacs also pointed out that “We (Mozilla) fundamentally don’t believe that you should have one or two companies that approve every piece of content that you and I engage with.” Aside from taking a pot shot at Google and Apple, the company is looking to capitalize on their partners’ knowledge and expertise on the countries that they’re catering to. Moreover, he’s insinuating that Firefox OS will give telcos some say over the apps that are being pushed to the platform (more bloatware perhaps?). He adds by saying that “With the support of our vibrant community and dedicated partners, our goal is to level the playing field and usher in an explosion of content and services that will meet the diverse needs of the next two billion people online.”

Mozilla is planning to release the first batch of Firefox OS handsets in the latter half of this year in key markets. So far, Alcatel and ZTE are the only two manufacturers with a readymade smartphone, but Mozilla is also looking to include Huawei and LG in the mix.

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alcatel one touch firemozilla firefox osmwc 2013zte fire

Ronnie Bulaong

This article was written by Ronnie Bulaong, a special features contributor and correspondent for YugaTech. Follow him on Twitter @turonbulaong.

https://www.yugatech.com

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6 Comments

garz says:

12 years ago

There’s still nothing new by the looks of the UI… Still looks like Android/iOS.
- Reply
Jan says:

12 years ago

webOS was nice.
- Reply

Ryan says:

12 years ago

yah. until chrome arrived.

psy says:

12 years ago

…well at least let’s give firefox a chance to bloom…hope it doesn’t end like WebOS
- Reply
frederick says:

12 years ago

battle of the OS na? masaya yan, firefox, then ubuntu and bb10
- Reply
Benchmark says:

12 years ago

singtel is included…hinde ba partner ng globe yun…so it means, Globe also can cater the Firefox OS.

Well I just wish Firefox will do well in mobile OS like their Browser software…plus a quality apps for their OS.
- Reply