Wireless Utopia

The heavyweights of the Telco. world have united to form a new lobby, called the Next Generation Mobile Network or NGMN. The idea being that the operators can provide a coherent view of their requirements for 4G networks. The term coherent here is the keyword here. The industry standard bodies are responsible for the formation of standards. In the telecom world ETSI, 3GPP and 3GPP2 were responsibile for laying out the current crop of standards. The technology bodies like GSM Association and CDG were fromed to prmote these standards.

But with the advent of WiMAX and all IP networks, IETF has has established itself as another influential standard body. And IETF is notorious for squabling and has been marred by turf wars between the rival factions being backed by leading OEM's. The UWB group was finally disbanded and the MANET working group is considered a joke. With billions of dollars of revenues at stake, the telcos. dont really want to take a chance.Since the Telcos. are the eventual customers for the OEM's, thier voices will be heard.

So maybe the next round of meetings and conferences will be a bit more amicable. The entertainment will be sorely missed though.

Technorati Tags: Telco, Carriers, Standards, IETF, WiMAX, 4G