It's always a rewarding experience in life when we have the opportunity to see our work yield positive results, and here at TIA that's no different. Judging by the positive reaction garnered by our members' new TIA-1083 compliant handsets at this year's Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) Convention in Oklahoma City , it's safe to say that's the case here.

The TIA-1083 presence at the show included three members – Vtech and Uniden, who worked from the TIA booth, and Panasonic, whose booth was right next to TIA's. All three received positive reactions from attendees who noted the elimination of interference between their hearing aids and digital cordless handsets. Attendees also voted on a graphic symbol for the TIA-1083 label for phone packaging. This reflects a genuine success, as TIA's goal at the show was to share and continue the success story of the TIA-1083 standard, designed to eliminate the magnetic noise produced in those phones whose users have T-coils present in their hearing aids.

The standard's history dates to 2005, when Gallaudet conducted tests and trials on T-coil interference. TIA joined Gallaudet, Etymotic Research and Motorola in a collaborative study at the following year's HLAA convention. An outreach to audiologists is likely to follow, in the wake of a newly-passed Arizona law requiring them to educate patients on T-coil interference. TIA and HLAA are conferring on future applications of the standard as well.

TIA-1083's rapid adoption and deployment represents a situation in which our members confronted a problem, and, within only a few years, worked with the hearing-loss community to craft a solution.

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TIA looks forward to President Bush signing two historic Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) this week, reducing trade barriers to trade with South Korea and Panama . After months spent ensuring the FTAs were favorable to our members, TIA will now begin its efforts to convince Congress to approve them. The agreements will improve the conditions of trade for all three countries, especially in the information and communication technology sector, by reducing tariffs on U.S. exports. Both the Panama FTA, signed Thursday, and the Korea FTA, to be signed Saturday, remove obstacles to exportation that have long hampered U.S. manufacturers, creating a consumer market in those countries and a strong manufacturing market here at home.

With Congress's full support, these FTAs can help reduce the U.S. trade deficit, especially in the exploding Korean market. The increased foreign investment and other government reforms that have taken place in developing telecom markets worldwide since the 1990s have yielded overwhelmingly positive results, rapid deployment and increased interconnectivity. Now, we have a chance to benefit U.S. manufacturers, who already compete against foreign companies that don't face tariffs here.

TIA, as part of the bilateral FTA negotiations, worked hard to persuade the Korean and Panamanian governments that the FTAs would be mutually beneficial for all parties. In addition to lobbying on behalf of the United States to the Korean government, TIA filed comments this week with the U.S. International Trade Commission supporting the FTA and urging the ITC to do the same. Now it's up to Congress to bring home these victories for consumers and manufacturers alike by approving the agreements at the soonest possible opportunity.

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Project Number 3- 0282 , create a TIA, Minimum Performance Specification for Terrestrial Mobile Multimedia Multicast Forward Link Only Repeaters – if interested contact Carl Stevenson, WK3C Wireless LLC at 610.841.6180, or via email at wk3c@wk3c.com

NEW STANDARDS PROPOSALS BALLOTS:

Standards Proposal Number 3-3490-RV2-AD1-A, proposed addendum to a TIA Standard, Residential Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard, Addendum 1 – Additional Requirements for Broadband Coaxial Cabling , (if approved, to be published as TIA-570-B-1)

NEW PROJECT NUMBERS BALLOTS:

Project Number 3-0265, proposed creation of a new TIA Standard, Video Codec for 3GPP2 Packet Switched Multimedia Services – H.263, (if approved, to be published as TIA-1133)

Project Number. 3-0265.SF1, proposed creation of a TIA Standard, Software Distribution for H.263 Video Codec for 3GPP2 Packet Switched Multimedia Services, (if approved, to be published as TIA-1133 [SF])

Project Number 3-3648-RV2.SF1, proposed creation of a TIA Standard, Software Distribution for Enhanced Variable Rate Codec (EVRC), Speech Service Options 3 and 68, Minimum Performance Specification (MPS), (if approved, to be published as TIA-718-B [SF]

Project Number 3-3292-RV3.SF1, proposed creation of a TIA Standard, Software Distribution for Enhanced Variable Rate Codec (EVRC), Speech Service Options 3, 68, and 70, Specification, (if approved, to be published as TIA-127-C [SF])

Project Number 3-0248, proposed creation of a new TIA Standard, Secured Packet Structure for CCAT Applications, (if approved, to be published as TIA-1106)

NEW DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE

TIA-1106, Secured Packet Structure for CCAT Applications

TIA-156-A, Land Mobile Radio Antenna Systems Minimum Standards for RF Signal Booster

AMERICAN NATIONAL STANDARDS:

TIA-41.290-E, Mobile Application Part (MAP) – Intersystem Handoff Annex A

TIA ONLY DOCUMENTS/INTERIM STANDARDS:

TIA-1120 , Forward Link Only Transport Specification

TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS BULLETIN (TSB):

TSB-143 , Fiber Optic Power Meters: Measurement and Application Issues

To check the status of any ballot (PN or SP), go to the TIA web page in the Standards Section to obtain current information.

The link for PN ballots is: http://www.tiaonline.org/standards/sfg/pn_report.cfm
or for SP ballots http://www.tiaonline.org/standards/sfg/sp_report.cfm

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