SOPHIA-ANTIPOLIS, France -- Today the ink is drying on a renewal of the commitment by the European and the U.S.A. standards bodies to the principles of cooperation and partnership.

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) of the United States and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) used the occasion of their participation in the Global Standards Collaboration (GSC-9), meeting this week in Seoul, Korea, to renew the TIA/ETSI cooperation agreement for another three years. The agreement was last renewed at the GSC meeting in Sydney Australia in 2001. Both organizations were created in 1988 and there has been ETSI/TIA cooperation since 1990.

This renewal will allow for further cooperation at the committee level. More than 60 Working Groups have been identified as having areas of mutual interest.

The agreement allows for:

Dan Bart, TIA Senior Vice President, Standards and Special Projects, commented:

'Since TIA and ETSI share many of the same member companies and a common goal to drive global standards needed by our industry, it has been our long-standing practice to work together to avoid duplication and create harmonized work where possible. We have cooperated in numerous areas including cellular, personal communications services, mobile data, 3G, satellite services, terminal equipment, and Internet-related activities just to name a few. This renewed agreement has some minor changes that further streamline our cooperation methods helping to efficiently produce standards.'

Karl Heinz Rosenbrock, the ETSI Director General, observed:

'This agreement is part of a growing range of initiatives between ETSI and TIA to ensure that our standards meet local needs and at the same time allow for worldwide implementations and interoperability between networks and equipment.'

Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)

European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)