Global Standards Collaboration meetings seek to further informal linkages among senior officials from national, regional and international standards bodies to support ITU's efforts in standardization - the answer to achieving harmonized and competitive worldwide markets for telecommunication products and services. Most importantly, the participants focused on the future role of standards and standards organizations in promoting the use of the GII worldwide as a backbone for commercial trade unhampered by diverse national implementations.
Standards are the roadbed of the information highway.
It makes no sense to talk about the new technologies for the information highway without speaking about the connections between them. Standards are the roadbed of the information highway Participants shared information about the convergence of radio communications, telecommunications and information technology, intellectual property rights, and about working methods that will speed up the standards process dramatically. New developments within the ITU designed to ensure greater efficiency in the production and distribution of standards were reviewed. Another central issue was the role of forums and consortia. Reports were heard from the ATM and the Multimedia Communications forums including a comprehensive survey on forums and consortia prepared by TTC of Japan.