Telecom industry collaboration, what are the benefits?

In the South of Sweden, a region called Öresund, there is an initative called Mobile Heights founded by the major telecom players in Sweden namely Ericsson, Sony Ericsson and Telia Sonera. This regional initiative aims to foster collaboration between members with the central theme of open innovations. Mobile Heights is helping new start-ups in the region to gain traction by providing funding support, industry support and access to IPR. This regional initiative is sponsored by the regional government in the south of Sweden.

Industry collaboration is not a new concept, its employed all the time from lobbying for a just cause to promoting a common idea. What differentiates Mobile Heights is that it intends to help promote entrepreneurship, help establish new companies while at the same time foster collaboration between members. Once a company within its wings grows and prosper, does it make sense to contribute back? As a gesture of gratitude perhaps it is, however does it make good business sense

Industry collaboration is never free, there are always cost associated to it including time and effort. Having said that, are the benefits gained better than the cost of admission and membership? There are several initiatives today that mostly a platform by the founding members to promote their cuase while minor members tag along to network and possibly to gain business out of other members. The beauty of Mobile Heights is that was founded with the intention to help the young and small companies to prosper and grow.

AmanziTel is one of the first Alumnis of Mobile Heights in terms of start-ups. The company's solution was not created from IPRs shared, however we benefitted from collaboration with other members in fine tuning components of our solutions. We are now in a crossroad, do we want to become a contributing member? What do we gain? Is it good for our business?

Being associated with well respected names in the industry has its plus factors to potential customers. Being a contributing member what are we suppose to give back to the industry. First off, AmanziTel is an open source company, so it can open up its source code and let other members use it and write their own innovations. Secondly AmanziTel is expanding and can use Mobile Heights's university connection and support new start-ups as well.

So should we explore being a contributing member to an industry initiative? I would like to gather your thoughts.