Why
working on home gateway?
The market for home communications services could grow rapidly
if the last interoperability and cost issues are solved.
Driving the development of residential gateways will give
a major boost to the market for home services for the benefit
of millions of broadband consumers.
The goal of the HGI is indeed to improve the interoperability
of gateways with connected home devices throughout the EU
and the rest of the world, as well as reducing the costs of
home gateways to customers.
Our initiative will base its work on existing standards (ITU-T
H 610, DSL Forum, UPnP, DLNA . . .), identify the gaps that
need to be filled, establish technical and interoperability
specifications and provide input to standardisation bodies.
Why
working together
Users need that communication is not limited by boundaries
: boundaries between countries, between service providers,
between networks of different operators, between systems.
This need is called interoperability.
Interoperability can only be obtained if the various actors
make use of compatible systems, regardless of unavoidable
differences. Some will provide broadband access on optical
fibers, others on copper pairs or on coaxial cable; or even
on a wireless link. These difference should be hidden to the
user in term of the nature and the extend of services provided,
in term of the possibility for a user to communicate with
another one. This is the role of standards. These are simply
specifications of systems allowing each manufacturer to produce
equipment that can be used by telcos to provide equivalent
services. This does not prevent from differences in service
offer and other ways for fair competition. But thanks to standards,
competition is not leading user to be captive to one provider
for ever....
Standards also allows for cost reduction through a larger
markket of common equipment.
The only way of obtaining a standard is to work out this
specification together, between competitors, operators and
manufacturers. Understand each other's requirement, agree,
or disagree, but on a fair basis of mutual understanding.
The value of a common work is much greater than the value
of the sum of each induvidual work : this is cooperation.
