Here's an announcement that I'm personally very pleased to be privy to. Tomorrow, BridgePort Networks, will participate in the MobileIGNITE announcement designed to foster collaboration which accelerates fixed mobile convergence.

MobileIGNITE is the newest Market Representation Partner (MRP) in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Sanjay Jhawar, one of the original founders of MobileIGNITE and the Senior Vice President of Marketing & Business Development for BridgePort Networks, has been heavily involved in this effort. For those of you who follow here, Sanjay has gracisouly spoke with me twice lately. The podcast of our most recent conversation is available here. And Sanjay is one of those keen minds and innovators in the field with whom I hope to chat regularly as we watch IMC, FMC and true integration evolve into the next generation of business tools.

My personal congratulations to Sanjay and BridgePort Networks for the success they're finding with the MobileIGNITE efforts.

MOBILEIGNITE IS APPROVED AS MARKET REPRESENTATION PARTNER IN THIRD GENERATION PARTNERSHIP PROJECT (3GPP) AND GROWS MEMBERSHIP WITH COMFONE AND PANDORA NETWORKS AS NEW MEMBERS

MobileIGNITE’s Focus in 3GPP to Provide Market Requirements for Fixed-Mobile Convergence Interoperability

Chicago, ILLINOIS – May 31, 2006 – Today MobileIGNITE, the leading industry association fostering collaboration to accelerate fixed-mobile convergence (FMC), is announcing that MobileIGNITE was accepted as the newest Market Representation Partner (MRP) of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) at the recent meeting held in Beijing, and that it has two new members to the organization: Comfone and Pandora Networks.

As a 3GPP MRP partner, MobileIGNITE joins an illustrious group of the global industry leadership groups supporting market solutions based on 3GPP standards: UMTS Forum, GSA, GSMA, IPv6 Forum, 3G Americas, TD-SCDMA Forum and TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance.

Leo Nikkari, Executive Director MobileIGNITE MOU said “MobileIGNITE fully supports the efforts of 3GPP and their contributions to global 3G markets, and we are honored to be approved as a Market Representation Partner. Our Interoperability Group efforts will provide 3GPP and the fixed-mobile convergence industry with best practices for end-to-end FMC configuration guidelines and interoperability testing based on open industry standards.”

MobileIGNITE is committed to support FMC solutions that are built on open standards such as GSM/UMTS-WCDMA (3GPP), CDMA (3GPP2), SIP (IETF), IMS and 802.11/16 (IEEE).

Karl Heinz Rosenbrock, Director General of ETSI stated: “We anticipate MobileIGNITE adding a new perspective to the current global standards efforts around IMS standards developed by 3GPP, and the associated FMC standards efforts in groups like ETSI/TISPAN.”

"We look forward to working with MobileIGNITE as part of the MRP community in 3GPP,” said Alan Hadden, President of Global Suppliers Association (GSA), “The insight and consensus guidelines that MobileIGNITE can share regarding its FMC interoperability initiatives are a valuable addition to the 3GPP partnership.”

The new members, Comfone and Pandora Networks, bring the total membership in MobileIGNITE to 39 member companies. The companies have agreed to support the group's principles of working on open standards-based interoperability and leveraging SIP based FMC service architectures that migrate to IMS. The solutions and expertise each new member provides are:

Comfone – is the recognized specialist provider of roaming services and has built on its expertise in mobile roaming and is already deploying service built on IMS.

Pandora Networks - is a leading provider of On-Demand IP Communications for the small or mid-sized business market. They specialize in SIP-based IP Centrex and other forms of IP communications including voice, video, messaging, collaboration, conferencing, and APIs to Salesforce and other on-demand business applications.

The new members Comfone and Pandora Networks now join MobileIGNITE current members: 724 Solutions, Accuris, Acme Packets, Apertio, Aruba Networks, BCT Global, Boingo Wireless, BridgePort Networks, BroadSoft, Centile, Convergin, CoreMobility, CounterPath, E28 Limited, FG Microtec, FirstHand Technologies, HelloSoft, Iristel, Kyocera Wireless, Net2Phone, Netrake, NewHeights Software, Oberthur, Openwave, PCTEL, QualPhone, Reef Point Systems, sentitO, Sonim, Sylantro, Tekelec, tekVizion, TapRoot, VK Corporation, VeriSign, Vivox, and WorldCell.

About MobileIGNITE
MobileIGNITE is an independent industry association of leading service providers and vendors that collaborate on accelerating the time to market for multi-vendor fixed-mobile convergence solutions that work in existing fixed and mobile networks with a smooth transition to the IP Multimedia System (IMS) environment. Key initiatives include interoperability best practices, market requirements development and liaison with industry standards organizations and other industry groups. Further information and application procedures may be found at www.mobileignite.org.