FMCA Interoperability Week
FMCA INTEROPERABILITY WEEK
CONVERGENCE & CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE CONFERENCE
The FMCA successfully completed its first Interoperability Plugtests in collaboration with ETSI, The Global Standards Producer and interoperability specialist, during the FMCA Interoperability Week and "Convergence and Customer Experience Conference" at ETSI Headquarters in Sophia Antipolis, France, 23rd - 25th June 2008.
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International operators and global equipment vendors worked together with ETSI to assess the interoperability of WiFi enabled laptops, dual-mode GSM /WiFi handsets and access points as well as various client applications and seamless authentication servers. The Plugtests demonstrated a high degree of interoperability of the tests performed but also revealed some hardware, software and network incompatibilities which resulted in many incomplete tests. This highlights the need for the industry to work more closely together to produce fully interoperable convergence services and an improved customer experience.
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ETSI worked closely with the FMCA to produce test specifications which evolved from the requirements defined in FMCA Product Requirements Definition 3.0. Further information at: /convergence-zone), specifically Wi-Fi association, quality-of-service, service continuity during network handovers and user interface independent of mode.
Comments from Participants
Anthony Wiles, Director, Centre for Testing & Interoperability, ETSI said: "The challenges in setting up and running the first FMCA Plugtests event has been well worth the effort - a high degree of interoperability has been demonstrated while indicating potential areas for further investigation. We believe that we have laid a firm foundation for ETSI and the FMCA to continue working together to develop and expand these activities, with the ultimate aim of assisting FMCA members and their partners to deliver fully interoperable solutions".
Michel Aroujo, NEC commented that "The FMCA Plugtests event is the ideal opportunity to have a view about what is really in the market". And his colleague Francisco Yoshiro Yamamoto, NEC continued: "FMCA interoperability week has been a unique and excellent opportunity to be confident that our solution can interoperate with other vendors."
Gilles Balsan, Gemalto, Head of New Channel at Gemalto said "This FMCA plug fest gave us the unique opportunity to test our Smart Card solution within real operators complete environments, including mobile phones, PCs and all Wifi back end. It allowed to get fruitful exchanges with operators on concrete services roll out, making all offers evolve to meet their expectations."
Andy Haworth, Managing Director of FMCA said: "The FMCA mission is to be 'The Voice of the customer and our Interoperability week demonstrated our commitment work with the closely with key industry players to help them develop fully convergence solutuions and continue to improve customer experience'. Andrew added "Following the success of the first Plugtest we are now considering the case for further Plugtests events to support interoperability developments in industry".
As well as demonstrating a high degree of Interoperability in the secure environment of Plugtests, the participants were able to show many live demonstrations of convergence solutions during the FMCA Convergence and Customer Experience Conference. The conference was very well attended by industry specialists from leading operators and vendors and received excellent feedback from the participants, with particular interest in the demonstrations and plugtests results.