They key words are "global" as well as the function of the ITU members (operators) supporting this
(global) standard.
That is, support from operators in US,europe,japan,china,etc on the level of "3G", although that
came to include many "substabdards", which then gets into how these are made compatible and how
that is supported.
Bottom line, (officially) Japan started to "support" a CDMA based 3G standard, europe folllowed
and Q, after a long delay, signed the "support" membership paper.
Before that the consensus and support for "3G" in terms of the services, this thing which has been so
difficult for many media spinners to understand.
Ilmarinen
To go into the history it goes back to US having a Ma Bell monopoly, while europe had many
national monopolies (well, except finland, kind of), the standardization functions in US vs the
the CCITT (Consultative Committee..Telegraph,Telephone) for first the european nations.
(plus Japan, doing its own NTT stuff)
When need for international compatibility became important, 1980s, modems, isdn,fax,etc
some important milestones were the transition from 56kbps to 64kbps in terms of voice
channels, ISDN, and the disappearance of different Bell-this-and-that plus some other ones to
the CCITT V-series (for modems, culminating in the Kflex,etc and then V.90 and V.91)
(one driving force the need to send faxes, make modem-connections,etc over both analog and
then digital voice-lines)
Then (european) CCITT became part of (global,UN) ITU. (but still with sub-national,continental,technology
standardization-bodies)
On the wireless-radio side additionally the allocation and licensing of frequencyband, specifications
for levels, outband stuff,etc and then what to place in those bands.
That is, not a "world government" with its own army to punish those who do not obey, nor
any global jail, but a "body" for achievieng consensus, with a demand for supporting consensus
decisions or get out of the "body", out in the cold, no direct influence anymore. |
