Verizon Wireless has said it is planning to more than halve the number of platforms it supports in its handset portfolio over the next few years, reports Reuters. CEO Lowell McAdam told the CTIA Wireless trade show this week that the operator was looking to reduce its number of platforms to just three or four, from around eight or nine currently, but he did not reveal which mobile operating platforms would be favoured. The strategy is designed to make it easier for the operator to launch new applications for end-users, he told reporters. Rival operator AT&T has also hinted recently that it plans to reduce the number of platforms it supports. McAdam’s comments came as the operator announced it had joined Joint Innovation Lab (JIL), a mobile software research initiative founded by Vodafone (45 percent-owner of Verizon Wireless), China Mobile and Japan’s Softbank. The project is seen as an attempt by the mobile operators to develop their own software for mobile devices as an alternative to mobile software from the likes of Apple, Google and Nokia.

Meanwhile, Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon Communications, told delegates at CTIA that the operator’s imminent rollout of LTE would not mean a hike in capex this year. “It’s going to be not that expensive. It’s mostly built into the run-rate of what we’re talking about [for Verizon’s typical annual network spending],” he told reporters. McAdam added that Verizon Wireless would keep its existing networks running for as long as seven years while it rolled out the new LTE network. Verizon Wireless is scheduled to begin trialing its LTE network later this year, making it one of the first mobile operators in the world to begin migration to the next-generation mobile technology.