France Telecom joint venture with Thomson SA and Sagem Télécommunications

France Telecom intends to set up a joint venture with Thomson SA and Sagem Télécommunications in a view to develop common standards to allow various electronic devices to better communicate. In this configuration, the three parties would develop a new standard for data transfer between different types of devices such as broadband modems, decoders and mobile phones so as to stream music, images and information.

The future entity would be named HNSA, standing for Home Network Software Applications. France Telecom would hold 60 percent of HNSA while Sagem Communications and Thomson would hold 20 percent each. Other players could be invited to participate in HNSA to develop an industry-wide Standard.