Verizon teams up with LiMo foundation for Linux-based handsets

New York: The competition for mobile devices with open handset platform has just intensified with the second largest mobile service provider in the US,  Verizon Wireless,  joining  the LiMo Foundation, to compete with Android-based handsets being developed by Google and its partners.

Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, announced that it would be a part of the foundation's board and expects to sell its Linux-based phones in 2009.

The LiMo Foundation said with  Verizon Wireless, the total number of members in the organisation has reached 40. Verizone joins the likes  of Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, NEC, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Britain's Vodafone, the world's largest mobile operator.

Established in January 2007, the LiMo Foundation is a global consortium comprising handset makers and software companies, which aims to deliver an open handset software platform based on Linux operating system for the entire mobile industry.

Verizon will support the LiMo platform on its current cellular network and with the help of the other foundation members create a new generation of high end to the low end phones that can be more easily modified and upgraded to offer the latest features and internet services.

"If devices come along that are interesting to us and our customers we'd absolutely look at that," said a Verizon official, who also noted that third-parties could sell Android devices to Verizon Wireless customers if they can work on its network.