Vancouver, British Columbia, January 27, 2000 -- This week, five globally recognized Standards Development Organizations (SDOs): ARIB (Japan), CWTS (China), TIA (USA), TTA (Korea), and TTC (Japan) - were joined as Partners by a Market Representation Partner (MRP), the CDMA Development Group (CDG). CDG, which has been participating in these activities since last January, became the first MRP to join with the SDOs. These SDOs have agreed to cooperate in the preparation of globally applicable technical specifications for 3rd Generation Mobile Systems based on the evolved ANSI-41 core networks and the relevant radio access technologies to be transposed by the standardization bodies into appropriate deliverables (e.g., standards). The partners currently refer to these activities as a Third-Generation Partnership Project with ARIB, CWTS, TIA, TTA and TTC as the SDOs comprising 3GPP2. This partnership project -- 3GPP2 -- was launched in January 1999 in Vancouver, British Columbia and has a Partners Group, a Steering Committee, and six Technical Specification Groups (TSGs) where individual company members develop the specifications.

Sam Samra, Senior Director, Technical Programs for the CDMA Development Group, stated: "CDG has been participating in 3GPP2 as an individual member since the beginning of the partnership and we are very pleased to become 3GPP2's first Market Representation Partner and are looking forward to working closely with the other partners to meet global user requirements."

Steve Dennett, Chair of the 3GPP2 Steering Committee and Director, U.S. Standards Personal Communications Sector for Motorola, advised: "The partners are pleased that CDG will be joining 3GPP2 and its partners to work co-operatively to develop the specifications that will support agreements reached among major industry participants."

Collaboration with ITU
This work is to complement other similar activities and accelerate the work of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and its International Mobile Telecommunications -2000 (IMT-2000) initiative. The IMT-2000 initiative is planned to offer new user benefits such as advanced multi-media services, data rates up to 2 Mbps, next-generation mobile Internet and advanced packet services, global roaming, and more. Such advanced communications systems are intended to provide anytime, anywhere services where such technology is deployed. This will be a major advancement to current systems currently deployed which are referred to as second generation or "2G" systems.

The SDOs have agreed that ITU is preeminent for international telecommunications standardization, and it has been agreed with the ITU that results of the partnership's work will form the basis of contributions to the ITU in accordance with existing procedures in each country. The partnership will also take account of emerging ITU Recommendations on internetworking between IMT-2000 family members. 3GPP2 establishes and maintains liaison relationships with groups working on standards for other IMT-2000 family members, as appropriate. The Organizational Partners and Market Representation Partners believe this global cooperation will accelerate the ITU process for standardization of IMT-2000.

3GPP2
Membership currently consists of different categories: Organizational Partners, Market Representation Partners, and Individual Members. In addition, some organizations have been granted status as Observers. For example, the Telecommunications Standards Advisory Council of Canada (TSACC) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) are Observers to 3GPP2 and the UMTS Forum was invited to make a presentation at this partnership meeting. To join the partnership as an Individual Member, an applicant must be affiliated with an Organizational Partner. More information about the partnership project and its partners can be found on the web www.3gpp2.org.