Industry Engagement

WBA has an active program to engage relevant industry forums in supporting harmonized technical development which are sustainable within the industry. The industry forums with which WBA has established links are listed here:

3GPP
3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Program)

WBA is one of the Market Representation Partners of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) alongside organizations like NGMN, GSMA, CTiA, GCF, and Small Cell Forum, providing their members with a stable environment to produce the Market Requierements that define 3GPP technologies.

The project covers cellular telecommunications network technologies, including radio access, the core transport network, and service capabilities – including work on codecs, security, quality of service – and thus provides complete system specifications. The specifications also provide hooks for non-radio access to the core network, and for interworking with Wi-Fi networks.

3GPP specifications and studies are contribution-driven by member companies, in Working Groups, and at the Technical Specification Group level.

CableLabs

CableLabs is a R&D and Innovation platform dedicated to revolutionizing broadband communications and connectivity. We build the future of digital life outside the box, collaborating with the world’s most powerful network of multiple-systems operators, academia, policy makers and device manufacturers to bring tomorrow’s innovation ideas to life. Together with CableLabs’ subsidiaries Kyrio and UpRamp, we launch services vital to the ecosystem, commercialize market-making technologies, validate standards for manufacturers and strategically align partners across the business continuum to deliver global impact for MSOs and their customers.

OnGo Alliance

The OnGo Alliance believes that LTE-based solutions in the CBRS band, utilizing shared spectrum, can enable both in-building and outdoor coverage and capacity expansion at massive scale. In order to maximize CBRS’s full potential, the OnGo Alliance aims to enable a robust ecosystem towards making LTE-based CBRS solutions available. The mission of the OnGo Alliance is to evangelize LTE-based OnGo technology, use cases and business opportunities while simultaneously driving technology developments necessary to fulfill the mission, including multi-operator LTE capabilities. The OnGo Alliance will also establish an effective product certification program for LTE equipment in the US 3.5 GHz band ensuring multi-vendor interoperability.

European Green Digital Coalition

The European Green Digital Coalition (EGDC) is an initiative of companies, supported by the European Commission and the European Parliament, based on the request of the EU Council, which aims to harness the enabling emission-reducing potential of digital solutions to all other sectors.

GSMA
HTNG

HTNG – The premier technology solutions association in the hospitality industry, HTNG is a self-funded, nonprofit organization with members from hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, consultants, media and academic experts. HTNG’s members participate in focused workgroups to bring to market open solution sets addressing specific business problems. HTNG fosters the selection and adoption of existing open standards and also develops new open standards to meet the needs of the global hospitality industry. Currently more than 400 corporate and individual members from across this spectrum, including world leading hospitality companies and technology vendors, are active HTNG participants.

GSMA
GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting nearly 800 operators with more than 250 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem. This includes handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as Mobile World Congress, Mobile World Congress Shanghai and the Mobile 360 Series conferences.

GSMA
i3Forum

i3Forum is a global association to provide specifications, on the basis of existing standards, which can be usefully implemented from the wholesale international industry in order to have an efficient and effective migration path from existing voice services towards IP technology.

The long-term objective of i3forum is to contribute to, explore and promote ideas for innovative services within the international telecommunications sector, while considering international service interconnection requirements for different players and services. The desired result of this collaboration is to enable end-users to enjoy new and better quality IP-enabled services and applications, such as streaming video and high-bandwidth conference sessions and voice calls across all networks.

LoRa Alliance

The LoRa Alliance is an open, non-profit association of members that believes the internet of things era is now. It was initiated by industry leaders with a mission to standardize Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) being deployed around the world to enable Internet of Things (IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M), and smart city, and industrial applications. The Alliance members will collaborate to drive the global success of the LoRa protocol (LoRaWAN), by sharing knowledge and experience to guarantee interoperability between operators in one open global standard.

MulteFire Alliance

MulteFire Alliance is an international association dedicated to building a global ecosystem in support of the common interests of members, developers and users in the application of Long Term Evolution (LTE) and next generation mobile cellular technology in configurations that use only unlicensed radio spectrum.

GSMA
Open Connectivity Foundation

The Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) is dedicated to ensuring secure interoperability for consumers, businesses and industries by delivering a standard communications platform, a bridging specification, an open source implementation and a certification program allowing devices to communicate regardless of form factor, operating system, service provider, transport technology or ecosystem. The industry leading companies involved in OCF believe that secure and reliable device discovery and connectivity is a foundational component to enable IoT. The good news is that it is underway.

Small Cell Forum

Small Cell Forum supports the wide-scale adoption of small cells. Their mission is to drive the wide-scale adoption of small cells and accelerate the delivery of integrated HetNets.

This implies two main areas of focus:

  1. Standardization, regulation & interoperability
    Ensuring the adoption of industry wide standards, a positive regulatory environment, common architectures and interoperability.
  2. Marketing, promotion & business case
    Promoting the value & potential of small cells across the industry and to journalists, analysts, regulators, special interest groups and standards bodies.
think-cell
think-cell

WBA collaborates with think-cell to develop presentations and other marketing material.

UCLG Committee: Digital and Knowledge-based Cities
UCLG Committee of Digital and Knowledge-based Cities

United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) represents and defends the interests of local governments on the world stage, regardless of the size of the communities they serve.

United Cities and Local Governments supports international cooperation between cities and their associations, and facilitates programs, networks and partnerships to build the capacities of local governments. The organization promotes the role of women in local decision-making, and is a gateway to relevant information on local government across the world.

Wi-Fi Alliance
Wi-Fi Alliance

Wi-Fi Alliance® is a global non-profit industry association – their members are the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. The members of their collaboration forum come from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem and share a common vision of connecting everyone and everything, everywhere. Since 2000, the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, industry-standard security protections, and the latest technology. Wi-Fi Alliance has certified more than 30,000 products, delivering the best user experience and encouraging the expanded use of Wi-Fi products and services in new and established markets. Today, billions of Wi-Fi products carry a significant portion of the world’s data traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications.