Some of the world's leading mobile operators - including Vodafone, Orange and NTT DoCoMo of Japan - have set up a global alliance called Open Mobile Terminal Platform Alliance or OMTP, to steer the future development of handsets as they seek to encourage consumers to spend more on new services such as games and video clips.

The new alliance aims to lobby handset makers such as Nokia and Samsung as well as providers of mobile phone operating systems such as Microsoft and Symbian to develop more user-friendly phones that suit their customers' needs.

The formation of the Open Mobile Terminal Platform Alliance, to be formally announced today, consists also of TIM, Telefónica Moviles, T-Mobile, Smart and MMO2. Several other mobile operators, including Amena of Spain, Three, SFR, Telenor, KPN and One in Austria, have expressed an interest in joining the alliance, which will be based in London.

The alliance is a strong sign that operators recognise that they must develop widely adopted industry standards in devices. Despite strong sales of camera phones in established markets, picture messaging has failed to take off as users continue to experience problems in sending pictures between different handsets and networks.

Operators also want to influence the development of operating systems, which are becoming the heart of the latest handsets with ever more sophisticated features such as live video calling or e-mail.

Some of the operating systems under development cannot cope with the myriad demands placed on them - simple tasks such as linking users' contact address books with their picture messages can prove too difficult. Operators also want to encourage non-proprietary operating systems that will interact with open programming languages such as Java that are being used in growing numbers of mobile phone applications such as games.

Analysts said the launch of the new alliance was a sign that mobile operators recognise that initiatives to date to foster industry-wide standards through bodies such as The Open Mobile Alliance or the GSM Association have not been successful.

But the alliance is also seen as an attempt by operators to encourage greater competition in the market for mobile phone operating systems, which some operators fear could become dominated by either Microsoft or Symbian, in which Nokia has a large stake.

The alliance is known to have been talking to Savaje Technologies, part-owned by Vodafone and Orange and a developer of open- plan systems for mobile phones.

 These members will today establish* a new company based in London, OMTP Limited ("the OMTP group"), to achieve their goals.

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