Standards as an enabler for next generation networks

The recession in the telecommunications industry has meant that the traditional telecommunications operators (BT, AT&T, FT, etc) have found it difficult to provide the resources needed to participate effectively in the standards process. Thus, they are not influencing international standards to get what is needed to build the next generation of telecommunications networks. This could mean that the introduction of new services is delayed and that customers may have to pay more for their services than is necessary. A clear priority now is to re-engage operators in standardisation so that the equipment needed to build next generation networks (NGNs) is standardised to operator requirements. This is the only way to get network build costs down to a level where operators can afford to install it. This paper looks at ways of achieving this goal.