A US perspective on standards development

The foundation for the interconnected society of the 21st century is being built today. The key to having this become a reality is the availability of compatible national, regional, and global communications standards. Committee T1 Telecommunications has played increasing important standards development roles in the US and global telecommunications industries. Committee Tl's dual roles of a US standards developer and an initiator of global standards harmonization contribute to satisfying the users' desires that it be as easy to communicate across the country or around the world as it is to communicate across the street. The key technologies of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), personal communications services (PCS), and synchronous optical network (SONET) are but a few of the topics for which standards have been developed in Committee T1, and for which standardization of extensions and enhancements continue. These areas have also been among the topics Committee T1 has targeted for standards harmonization