The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) this month released a statement lauding the Biden Administration’s National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology.
In a statement, TIA CEO David Stehlin said:
“Standards play a vital role in advancing new technology innovations and promoting interoperability across various connected systems and services. By supporting research and development, strengthening communication between the public and private sectors, and fostering international partnerships, this strategy will help demonstrate U.S. leadership during a time of rapid geopolitical and technological change."
CETs will help spur standards efforts
On May 4, the Biden-Harris Administration released the United States Government’s National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology, as an initiative intended "to strengthen both the United States’ foundation to safeguard American consumers’ technology and U.S. leadership and competitiveness in international standards development."
As stated by a White House fact sheet explaining the National Strategy, "Standards are the guidelines used to ensure the technology Americans routinely rely on is universally safe and interoperable. This Strategy will renew the United States’ rules-based approach to standards development. It also will emphasize the Federal Government’s support for international standards for critical and emerging technologies (CETs), which will help accelerate standards efforts led by the private sector to facilitate global markets, contribute to interoperability, and promote U.S. competitiveness and innovation."
As directly stated by the White House, the Strategy focuses on four key objectives that will prioritize CET standards development, including:
- Investment: "Technological contributions that flow from research and development are the driving force behind new standards. The Strategy will bolster investment in pre-standardization research to promote innovation, cutting-edge science, and translational research to drive U.S. leadership in international standards development. The Administration is also calling on the private sector, universities, and research institutions to make long-term investments in standards development."
- Participation: "Private sector and academic innovation fuels effective standards development, which is why it’s imperative that the United States to work closely with industry and the research community to remain ahead of the curve. The U.S. Government will engage with a broad range of private sector, academic, and other key stakeholders, including foreign partners, to address gaps and bolster U.S. participation in CET standards development activities."
- Workforce: "The number of standards organizations has grown rapidly over the past decade, particularly with respect to CETs, but the U.S. standards workforce has not kept pace. The U.S. Government will invest in educating and training stakeholders — including academia, industry, small- and medium-sized companies, and members of civil society — to more effectively contribute to technical standards development."
- Integrity and Inclusivity: "It is essential for the United States to ensure the standards development process is technically sound, independent, and responsive to broadly shared market and societal needs. The U.S. Government will harness the support of like-minded allies and partners around the world to promote the integrity of the international standards system to ensure that international standards are established on the basis of technical merit through fair processes that will promote broad participation from countries across the world and build inclusive growth for all."
In his statement, TIA CEO Stehlin concluded:
"As a Standards Developing Organization, TIA, through its members, has developed and is developing a wide range of technology and process improvement standards for the ICT industry to improve public safety, cyber and supply chain security as well as data center and wireless network infrastructure resilience. The ICT industry will continue to have a vital role to play in developing and operationalizing these and other standards. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the Administration to help promote standards and advance trusted innovations for the future.”
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