A new organization is being created to represent the views of American GSM and TDMA wireless carriers as they convert to third-generation wireless technologies such as GPRS, EDGE and WCDMA.
The new, as-yet-unnamed organization hopes to launch early next year.
The goal of the group “will be to promote, educate and advocate for the success of the five wireless technologies and their seamless evolution to future generations, thereby advancing the wireless industry in the Americas for the benefit of consumers. … We will unify the voice of the most popular wireless standards in the Americas by addressing specific wireless issues and opportunities to enhance the growth of wireless technologies. We expect to make significant contributions on interoperability, portability of services, and other efficiencies as we move to 3G data services,” said Dave Williams, vice president of strategic planning for Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and ad-hoc chairman of the new organization.
There are technology-specific regulatory issues such as location and compliance with the digital wiretap act and other “technologies that have yet to hit the box” that the new group will focus on, said Williams.
This is the main reason for creating a new organization rather than working through the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, Williams told RCR Wireless News on Friday.
“We will still be working with CTIA. We have a really good relationship with [CTIA President] Tom Wheeler,” said Williams, noting that CTIA represents the entire wireless industry.
In addition to Cingular, Williams said AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Compaq, LM Ericsson, Lucent Technologies Inc., Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp., Openwave Systems, Rogers AT&T Wireless and Siemens AG have all signed on to the new group.
