President and Chief Executive Officer of leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), Napoleon L. Nazareno has been named member of the Board of Directors of the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), an alliance of telecommunications companies worldwide committed to building an open applications platform.

Smart is the only Southeast Asian telecommunications company represented in the board of the WAC.

WAC recently announced its formation as a corporate entity, as well as the organization’s leadership and board of directors. The company also announced that it will join forces with the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL), accelerating the commercial launch of WAC-enabled application stores.

“The creation of WAC opens up many possibilities that promise to deliver enormous benefits for mobile phone users. That is why Smart is proud to be part of this organization,” Nazareno said.

“WAC will promote the development of more applications and services via an open platform for mobile applications. By creating a wholesale applications ecosystem that will make it easier for developers to market their innovations, subscribers will ultimately benefit from the wider array of choices and value-for-money applications and services. Smart will focus on applications that address the need of subscribers in emerging markets, particularly prepaid users,” he added.

Nazareno joins a distinguished line-up of officers and members of the WAC Board of Directors:

• Michel Combes, CEO Vodafone – WAC Chairman

• Jean-Philippe Vanot, Deputy CEO France Telecom – WAC Vice Chairman

• John Donovan, CTO, AT&T

• Li Zhengmao, VP, China Mobile

• Olivier Baujard, CTO Deutsche Telekom

• Alex Sinclair, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer, GSMA

• Dr. Hyun-Myung PYO, President of Mobile Business Group, KT Corporation

• Dr. Kiyohito Nagata, SVP, NTT DOCOMO

• Sung Min Ha, President Mobile Network Operation Business Unit, SK Telecom

• Tetsuzo Matsumoto, Senior Executive Vice President, SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp.

• Marco Patuano, Head of Domestic Market Operations, Telecom Italia

• Vivek Dev, Group Director of Global New Services, Telefónica

• Dr. Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO, Telekom Austria Group

• Morten-Karlsen Sorby, EVP and Head of Corporate Development, Telenor

• Dick Lynch, EVP and CTO, Verizon

At launch, WAC will allow operators to distribute applications through their respective application storefronts and charge users through their existing phone bill. In this model, developers will set the application price and will receive a revenue share for the transaction.