The cross-operator API platform dream is over. Who could have predicted it?
The Wholesale Applications Community was never given much of a chance by most industry observers. And now it turns out that those moaning minnies, well, they were right.
Today, it was confirmed that US tech specialist Apigee had acquired its technology, and will continue to develop the WAC Web Run Time and network APIs as a managed service to the GSMA and its operator members.
The rest of the WAC (staff? stationery? letter headings?) will revert to the GSMA.
And so ends one of the least fancied of all industry initiatives.
WAC was launched at Mobile World Congress in 2010, and was backed by 60 operators, OEMs and partners. Its big idea was to provide a write-once-run-anywhere platform using standard technologies like HTML, JavaScript and CSS.
Thus, it was an attempt to create a new global app alternative to native platforms like iOS, especially as the WAC promised easy to implement operator billing across the world.
But developers didn't see anything too wrong with the native platforms and carried on regardless.
So WAC's progress was limited. It claims its Payment API has launched or is in trial with operators including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, KT, LGU+, SK Telecom, Smart Communications, Telefonica and Telenor, and is in development with a further 12 operators.
Meanwhile the WAC Web Run Time has been enabled on 12 million devices to date.
Not that great.
However, Franco Bernabe, chairman of the GSMA, reckons the WAC can keep growing. He said: "By integrating WAC into the GSMA, we will be able to scale this across our full membership, assisting operators around the world to better serve their customers."
This leaves Apigee to run with the tech, and give developers a more coherent option for building operator-friendly APIs into their apps.
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