The GSM Association has said its restructure will improve the
reputation of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications)
operators worldwide when it comes to new service rollouts.
The association, which represents more than 660 mobile telephony
operators from around the world will be led by a 21-member board of
chief executive officers (CEOs) from 1 January.
"The CEOs will spend a significant amount of their time creating a
global platform and solving global issues in the GSM industry,"
said Jim Pratt, chairman of the GSM Association and a
representative of Australian mobile operator SingTel Optus.
"If we do the job well, we will have products in the marketplace
faster. That has an impact on our bottom line and that will make
the consumer happier."
A dozen of the CEOs will come from the world's largest operators in
terms of customer numbers. A selection process for the other seats
not yet been decided. At present the GSM Association is led by an
executive committee not of CEO level.
Pratt suggested the new leadership would be able to prevent
debacles such as the introduction of WAP (Wireless Application
Protocol) for mobile Internet, the roaming on GPRS (General Packet
Radio Service) networks, and the interoperability issues with MMS
(Multimedia Messaging Service).
However, the GSM Association said that pricing will remain the
responsibility of each individual operator. Groups representing
business telecommunications users have said that users want lower
call rates and a flat fee pricing for data calls on GPRS.
GPRS is an upgrade to GSM that enables packet-switched data traffic
at about the speed of a standard dial-up connection. About 120 GPRS
networks are live in 49 countries today, according to the GSM
Association, which held a second "roamfest" at its Istanbul meeting
for operators to sign GPRS roaming agreements.