Geneva, Switzerland – 10th September, 2007 – At its first ever Asia-based meeting, the Home Gateway Initiative (HGI) will make steps towards a major milestone in the development of specifications for IMS and Fixed-Mobile Convergence in home networking when it finalises the second release of its specification document. Taking place in Shanghai, the presence of the HGI in Asia is testimony to the growing importance of home communications services within the vast and rapidly advancing region.

Release 2, entitled “Evolution of support to end-to-end broadband networks and services”, starting from the basis set by HGI Release 1 (published on July 2006), will provide increased support to IMS, Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) scenarios, plug-and-play capabilities, Quality of Service, remote management and troubleshooting, and additional mechanisms for end-to-end delivery and fruition of broadband services.  The specification document will be formally released and published on the HGI website in Q4 2007.   

“We are already seeing the specifications outlined in our first document playing a major role in operators’ RFI/RFQs,” said Paolo Pastorino, Chief Technology Officer at the HGI.  “With the approval of Release 2, operators will have greater guidance that will aid usability, quality of service, customer support and the delivery of a series of value added services, among which will be FMC – arguably one of the most important goals in today’s communications environment.

 In July 2007, the HGI entered into an official partnership with the Fixed-Mobile Convergence Alliance that will see two of the industry’s leading bodies collaborate towards ensuring widespread availability of fully interoperable home gateways, access points and devices that will better enable the delivery of converged services in the home. 

In May 2007, the HGI announced that it had begun work on the details of Release 3, that will further investigate and provide support to the seamless integration into IMS-based NGN service environments.  The R3 specification document will be finalised and issued in Q4 2008.   

Next month, HGI will take part in the IEC’s Broadband World Forum Europe.  At the flagship European broadband event, expected to attract over 8,000 visitors, senior HGI representatives will outline the latest issues in the broadband home space during four key sessions: B2 – The Evolution of Home Networking – Phase Two; C2 – Management of QoS in Home Networks; D2 – Possible Service Provider Device Strategies for the Residential Market; and E3 – Home Highways for Video Distribution.   

To arrange a meeting with the HGI at Broadband World Forum Europe, please contact Howard Jones on +44(0)7980 772 285 or email howard@bcspr.co.uk. 

Ends 

The HGI was founded and launched by nine telecom operators (Belgacom, BT, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, KPN, TeliaSonera, NTT, Telefonica and Telecom Italia) in December 2004, and now has members from five continents, representing the entire spectrum of actors in the broadband home arena.  The main tasks of the HGI are to establish home gateway-related technical and interoperability specifications and provide input to standardisation bodies. 

For further information, please visit www.homegatewayinitiative.org or email contact@homegatewayinitiative.org.  

For all media enquires, please email howard@bcspr.co.uk or call +44 (0)115 948 6917.

Click for PDF version