TIA expands scopes for TR-45 and TR-41 engineering committees

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has announced notable new titles and scopes for two of its 12 standards development committees.

TIA’s TR-45 Engineering Committee, formerly titled Mobile and Personal Communications Standards, is now titled Mobile and Point-to-Point Communications Standards. The committee, which addresses wireless mobile and personal communications systems, has now also taken on new work in the area of terrestrial fixed point-to-point radio communications equipment and systems. TR-45 develops standards pertaining to service information, wireless terminal equipment, wireless base station equipment, wireless switching office equipment, ancillary apparatus, auxiliary applications, internetwork and inter-system operations and interfaces.

“We’re excited to take on this new project and are very pleased that work is progressing quickly in the development of these standards,” comments Jane Brownley, TR-45 Chair and Technical Manager at Alcatel-Lucent.

The TR-41 Engineering Committee, formerly titled User Premises Telecommunications Requirements, is now titled Performance and Accessibility for Communications Products. The committee has expanded its scope to go beyond “telephones” to cover all types of communications devices, however they may be connected to a communications network, and to emphasize its work on accessibility and usability issues. TR-41 standards include performance requirements related to signal transmission, environmental impacts, and interfacing to networks and other equipment.

TR-41 is a source of expert technical opinion and advice for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other communications-focused government agencies.

“A tablet connected to the Internet is a lot like a speakerphone connected to the PSTN when it comes to voice transmission considerations, except the tablet may have video associated with it that needs to be synchronized with the audio,” says Steve Whitesell, TR-41 Chair and President of Whitesell Consulting LLC.

Whitesell adds, “We are also very energized about a new project to expand coverage of the high-gain amplified telephone standard we published last year to include VoIP phones for people with mild, moderate, or severe hearing loss.”

For more information about TR-45 and TR-41 and how to participate in standards development with TIA, contact Stephanie Montgomery or Marianna Kramarikova at tiaonline.org.