News Release

3GPP2 Agrees to Accept Operators' Harmonization Group's Recommendations for Global 3G Standards

Montreal, Canada, July 14, 1999

At a meeting of its Steering Committee held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on July 12, 1999, attended by over 100 representatives of companies and organizations involved worldwide in third-generation (3G) wireless standardization, the Third-Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) agreed to accept the recommendations of the Operators' Harmonization Group (OHG) and modify its technical specification writing activities to produce standards for the Direct Sequence (DS), Multi-Carrier (MC), and Time Division Duplex (TDD) modes of the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) standard as recommended by the OHG. This work is in support of the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000) efforts for 3G wireless systems.

The Steering Committee noted it must work closely with the other third-generation partnership project (i.e., 3GPP) on the harmonized Global 3rd Generation (G3G) CDMA specifications. The work also includes support for all 3 CDMA modes on both the evolved American National Standards Institute-41 (ANSI-41) and Global System for Mobile/Mobile Application Part (GSM/MAP) platforms that are in use around the world and interworking between those networks. The complete G3G standards are intended to ensure global roaming and seamless "anywhere, anytime" services. Under the agreement setting up 3GPP2, the five Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) involved will publish these G3G standards after following each SDO's approval process. These cooperative efforts are intended to accelerate the work at the ITU, reduce cost, avoid duplication of work, and yield a set of standards for use throughout the world.

The 3GPP2 Steering Committee agreed to establish technical liaison with 3GPP and have 3GPP2's technical experts participate in a planned 3GPP-sponsored August 24-26, 1999 Workshop in France in order to share information and cooperate technically between both 3GPP2 and 3GPP. This first Workshop is focusing on DS support on ANSI-41.

The Steering Committee also agreed to sponsor a second Workshop to continue technical harmonization discussions and additional issues beyond those on the August agenda, such as MC support on GSM/MAP. This 2nd G3G Workshop is planned for September 9-10, tentatively on the West Coast of the USA. These Workshops are open to all interested parties. Meeting information for the 2nd Workshop will be posted on the 3GPP2 web site at www.3GPP2.org. The Steering Committee also created a special group of experts to conduct a detailed evaluation of all issues to be resolved in order to implement the OHG's recommendations and prepare for the Workshops and to report Workshop results at the next 3GPP2 Steering Committee meeting now scheduled for September 17 in Tokyo, Japan. The Steering Committee noted the need to have a coordinated work plan between both partnership projects, and will request a meeting with the leadership of 3GPP to agree on that coordinated work plan.

The OHG recommendations also suggested that "for complete harmonization, 3GPP & 3GPP2 should consider merging into a single body no later than December 2000. This merger will provide focus in developing a unified core network for the future as well as ensuring that Air Interfaces and the associated protocol layers in the future will be completely harmonized." The Steering Committee agreed to investigate that recommendation after the Workshop results are known and the details of what tasks need to be done are more evident. Any recommendations from the Steering Committee would be forwarded to the Organizational Partners group of the SDOs for action, if required.

The timeline established by the ITU for IMT-2000 is aggressive and significant resources worldwide are being exerted to ensure standards are available to meet market demands. This requires cooperation with 3GPP, the ITU, and other bodies worldwide to produce global standards.

For a copy of the OHG Recommendations, or more information on 3GPP2, see www.3GPP2.org.

The five SDOs who -- along with their participating company members -- are involved in 3GPP2 are:

1. The Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) was chartered by the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Japan, as a public service corporation on May 15, 1995. ARIB has about 300 members including both Japanese firms and overseas firms.
2. China Wireless Telecommunication Standard (CWTS) Group is the SDO responsible for wireless standardization in China, as approved by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).
3. The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is both a Trade Association of over 1,000 members and an ANSI-accredited SDO with participation from 400 companies and organizations which develops standards for equipment and systems used in the USA and around the world. TIA is also the Secretariat for 3GPP2.
4. The Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) of Korea is the SDO authorized by the Ministry of Information and Communication for standardization activities in Korea and represents 150 members.
5. The Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC) of Japan contributes to standardization in the field of telecommunications by establishing protocols and standards for connection between telecommunications networks, terminal equipment, and a telecommunications network, etc., as well as the dissemination of those standards. It has 160 members.