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