• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, November 11, 2013

Underscoring its mobile ambitions, Facebook has joined the GSMA mobile trade group. The association of mobile operators and other industry companies oversees the GSM standard and operates the annual Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona.

In a statement to FierceWireless, Dan Rose, VP of partnerships at Facebook, that joining GSMA “reflects our focus on mobile and our continued desire to work closely and collaboratively with partners in the industry, and we look forward to playing an active role as a member.”

Besides Facebook increasing business focus on mobile, the move also stems from its participation in Internet.org, the coalition it formed in August to expand mobile Web access globally with partners including Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera Software and Qualcomm.

As the only social network currently a member of GSMA, Facebook said it would be able to gain better understanding of issues facing operators and to align more closely with them. Given that Facebook is a key player in the mobile ecosystem, a spokesperson for the organization said joining forces with Facebook would help it to deliver programs to operator members.