Telecom Equipment Vendors Tout Open Standards as Industry Enabler for Delivery of Next-Gen Infrastructure to Service Providers, End Users

March 22, 2006, TelecomNEXT, Las Vegas – Open standards were cited as a key aspect for equipment vendors to deliver communications infrastructure in a short timeframe and at the right cost-points, according to the participants of an ATIS TechThink vendor panel at TelecomNEXT today.

“Standards help drive rapid innovation,” said Doug Davis, vice president, Digital Enterprise Group/general manager, Communications Infrastructure Group, for Intel. “With the rapid pace of technology evolution in communications industry, standards-defined infrastructure is necessary to deliver scalable technologies quickly and at the right cost.”

Jim White, vice president of Marketing – Access Networks Division for Alcatel, called for a different type of engagement model between the service providers and equipment vendors. “The requirements for new services need to be locked down up front so they are written into standards and included in silicon requirements,” he said.

Davis and White were joined on stage by Roger Heinz, vice president – Convergence Solutions Group of Lucent Technologies; Tony Bates, senior vice president, Carrier Core and Multi Services Business Unit of Cisco Systems; and Tony Zona, vice president, Wireline Networks, Marketing and Product Management for Motorola for a general session moderated by ATIS President and CEO Susan Miller.

The vendor panel was an opportunity for the community to speak as an industry segment to the requirements the service providers are putting forth as they convert from legacy networks to IP-based next-generation networks and services.

Key areas covered during the session included IPTV, IMS and WiMAX, as well as new business models for the vendors and service providers in the changing communications industry.

Regarding WiMAX and the hesitancy among US carriers to advocate the technology, the panel recognized the hurdles barring deployment, including spectrum availability and potential regulatory concerns, but was supportive of its eventual deployment as part of a broader wireless network strategy.

“The communications industry has a tendency to over-hype a technology and then declare it a failure when it doesn’t take hold immediately,” said Motorola’s Zona. “It’s only then that the real work begins.”

ATIS TechThink concludes today, having offered 18 technology sessions over three days in conjunction with TelecomNEXT. Other ATIS TechThink sessions today included two Innovators’ Circle sessions, an RFID Tutorial, and a presentation on IPTV on the TelecomNEXT Exhibit Hall floor.

About ATIS

ATIS is a technical planning and standards development organization that is committed to rapidly developing and promoting technical and operations standards for the communications and related information technologies industry worldwide using a pragmatic, flexible and open approach. Participants from more than 350 communications companies are active in ATIS’ 23 industry committees and Incubator Solutions Program. www.atis.org

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