A report in French newspaper Le Figaro (reported by MobileBusinessBriefing.com) says Stephane Richard, the CEO of France Telecom, wants to meet the heads of Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica and Vodafone on 8th October to talk about creating a common OS for mobile devices.
He describes a mobile operating system as the 'Trojan horse' used by Google and Apple to establish their own relationship with the customers of mobile operators. The four network operators are responsible for almost a billion customers. Mr Richard doesn't go into detail; he mentions the options of a joint venture or a small business unit that works together on applications, noting that he wants to 'take the reins' when it comes to innovation.
MobileBusinessBriefing.com suggests the four companies might develop custom versions of Android or Symbian to support their products and services.