re: the lack of technical rigor
Clark,
In my view this is only part of the problem - and perhaps the part that can be most easily rectified.
re: (can) the vendors actually resolve the technical incompatibility issues without getting political?
I think this is the insidious issue... and, in my view, all issues - including and especially conflict resolution - are fundamentally political in committee-based forums, including and especially 3GPP.
3GPP vendors - and especially the powerful, major vendors - fiercely protect their proprietary intellectual property that has been integrated into the standards. And in addition to de facto essential intellectual property, with an evolving standard, vendors are motivated to integrate additional, optional proprietary technology into their individual physical solutions (infrastructure, handsets and software) in order to influence - through successful field application - what may, in evolving standard versions, be injected or perceived as "essential" - or at least functioning.
Also, it is possible, through the integration of additional, optional proprietary technology, for vendors to lock carrier clients into same-vendor upgrades.
So, ironically, competing vendors have multiple vested interests in developing and marketing commercial solutions with additional proprietary content that further exacerbate cross-vendor compatibility issues.
<g>
Ben |
