Plans for a New Forum: Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group

     

A group of leading broadband and high-tech companies announced initial plans for a voluntary Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group ("BITAG" or "TAG").

See the press release "Initial Plans for Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group Announced" - here.

Adjunct Professor Dale Hatfield of the University of Colorado at Boulder, a former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chief Technologist, will be serving as the facilitator of the group.

"The TAG's mission is to bring together engineers and other similar technical experts to develop consensus on broadband network management practices or other related technical issues that can affect users' Internet experience, including the impact to and from applications, content and devices that utilize the Internet. "

The new initiative got the support of the Internet Society (ISOC). Leslie Daigle, Chief Internet Technical Officer of the Internet Society said: "The Internet Society believes this activity is an important contribution to the ongoing global [However, the BITAG press release statements are very US/FCC centric - Azi], open technical dialog and looks forward to seeing its output appropriately integrated with the work of existing Internet standards activities."

The impressive list of industry participants has a mix of broadband service providers, content providers, equipment and software vendors and includes: AT&T Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Comcast Corporation (see comcastvoices blog - here), DISH Network, L.L.C., EchoStar Corporation, Google Inc. (see Google Public Policy Blog - here), Intel Corporation, Level 3 Communications, LLC, Microsoft Corporation, Time Warner Cable and Verizon.