Open Standards Needed for Telecom Industry: Intel CEOIntel Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Craig Barrett Tuesday called on telecommunications industry to embrace open standards in building next generation voice and data networks."The telecommunications industry is struggling with traffic volumes and costs that are rising faster than revenues," Barrett told Xinhua during ITU Telecom 2000, being held here from December 3 to 9. "We believe the solution to this problem is to move the telecommunications industry from products and services based on closed, proprietary technology, to those based on standards," he said, adding that adopting common standards will accelerate growth and the pace of innovation while lowering costs. The ability to provide new communications services and features to consumers faster and at lower cost is the key advantage of implementing standards, the Intel president said. He believed that the telecom industry can and must benefit from the same economic forces that drove standards in computing industry. "Meeting the standards of the open market requires open standards," he stated. The old way of building communications infrastructure just can't keep pace with the demands of the new economy, he added. Intel, the world's largest chip maker and leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products, is reportedly helping to build the next generation open communications network, focusing on helping customers build standards-based switches, routers and other communications equipment. It also in the process of defining a new standard for wireless communications devices that relies on Intel personal Internet client architecture. Barrett also told Xinhua that as part of its work to support these initiatives, his company has created the Intel Communications Fund, and the fund will be increased from US$200 million to US$500 million to include specific investments in wireless communications. Barrett said Intel will continue to expand the investment in China and work together with Chinese companies to develop next generation voice portals, a powerful new way to conduct e-commerce. |
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