OTA configuration for Android March 10, 2009
Posted by wirelessinformatics in Handsets, User Experience.Tags: Android, configuration, G1, OHA, OMA CP, OTA
trackback
Some interesting work from WDSGlobal who have just contributed a new project into the Open Handset Alliance’s Android Project.
The standard Android build does not include any provision for the OTA (over the air) provisioning of APNs. These control how your handset connects to data services such as Internet.
Not really a problem for the G1 because it was locked to the T-Mobile network. But fast forward 12 months when you have multiple vendors launching different Android devices and users churning them between networks and you start to see the problem. As a data-centric OS it needs to be as simple as possible for someone to churn their Android device onto a new network and get data connectivity.
There is of course an industry standard for the configuration of data settings called OMA CP. It’s implemented in the majority of handsets released today – just not Android ones. WDSGlobal’s project simply extends the OMA CP standard onto the Android platform.
Interesting news. Unfortunately, contributing something so the Android project is one thing, getting it accepted and have it be included into an official Android version is another thing. My question: do you have any idea if this code is planned to make into Android anytime soon?
As to the coding for Android, they made the coding open for anyone to expand on so it does make it good for those who have the coding background to be able to implement the OTA feature. I still find that it would have been nice for the company or those who decided to get in the coding for Android to have at least written something for the OTA function for each provider.
Phones in other countries are coded to auto-detect the carrier and use those settings…if what I hear is correct. Wouldn’t something like that not be preferable to having to go online and send an OTA message to phone to configure it?