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ATIS and Interoperability in the Africa Region

Learn about ATIS, a leading organization focused on developing global standards for tomorrow's communications ecosystem. Discover their commitment to promoting interoperability in the Africa region and their proposal for addressing interoperability problems.

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ATIS and Interoperability in the Africa Region

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  1. ATIS andInteroperability in the Africa Region Dr. Asok Chatterjee On Behalf of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) July 30-31, 2010

  2. About ATIS • ATIS is the leading technical planning and standards development organization headquartered in North America. • ATIS is committed to the rapid development of global, market-driven standards to make possible tomorrow's communications ecosystem. • More than 600 industry professionals from approximately 250 companies actively formulate standards in ATIS’ Committees, Forums, and Incubators. • ATIS is the North American Organizational Partner for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a member and major U.S. contributor to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radio and Telecommunications’ Sectors, and a member of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL).

  3. ATIS and Interoperability in the Africa Region • ATIS is pleased to be a part of the Regional ITU Consultation on Conformance Assessment and Interoperability for the Africa Region and strongly supports the ITU’s objective of promoting interoperability and bridging the standardization gap as articulated in World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly 2008 (WTSA-08) Resolution 76. • ATIS seeks to support countries and regulators of the developing world. • In this regard, ATIS requests consideration of the step-by step approach to addressing interoperability as outlined in the following slides.

  4. Conformance Database Is Ineffective and Risky • A conformance database is not likely to improve interoperability. • Conformance is not necessarily related to interoperability. For example, whether a product conforms with product safety requirements does not impact its ability to interoperate with other devices. • Most products conform to many standards, not just ITU Recommendations. Hence, conformance with only ITU Recommendations will not ensure interoperability. • The majority of standards include many options. If a standard has two options, for example, products in conformance with Option A will not necessarily interoperate with products in conformance with Option B.

  5. Conformance Database Is Ineffective and Risky (cont.) The database could negatively impact countries and consumers. Countries may be deprived of new, state-of-the art products and services if companies are inhibited from entering a market when its products are not listed in the database. Time-to-market will likely be slowed by new conformance testing. Marketplace confusion could result from false, misleading or otherwise erroneous database entries. Consumers may face higher costs from additional conformance and/or interoperability testing and from reduced competition in the market. 5

  6. Proposal to the Africa Region • THEREFORE, ATIS supports the following “step-by-step” approach to addressing interoperability problems being experienced by member states: • The Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) Director, prior to the implementation of any conformance or interoperability database, should: • Identify the nature of the interoperability and conformity problems in the Africa region; • Identify the effects databases may have on sector members and stakeholders (e.g., other SDOs); • The relevance of the proposed searchable databases in “bridging the standardization gap” in the Africa Region should be specifically addressed; • Present the results of a robust consultative process with respect to the databases to future Council meetings; • Develop a detailed “business case” for the searchable database prior to its implementation; and • Address potential liability issues related to the use of the databases before implementation.

  7. In Summary • More work remains to be done in order to move toward a useful implementation of Resolution 76 that addresses the needs and priorities of member States, the structure of the ICT industry, and the expectations of end users around the world. • Follow up action to Resolution 76 of WTSA-08 put forward by the TSB Director to Council and the Plenipotentiary Conference 2010 (PP-10) should utilize a step-by step approach to ensure that the solution deployed by the ITU will actually address the problems being experienced by member states. • A business plan that identifies costs and potential liabilities must be completed prior to launching of the proposed ITU-T database (see JCA-CIT).

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