Trends in the standardization of telecommunications on GII, multimedia, and other network technologies and services

Global standardization is becoming more and more important in achieving a global information infrastructure (GII). Telecommunication and information standardization organizations such as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) Joint Technical Committee (JTC) have each set up special groups to focus on determining standards for GII. This article presents the activities of these organizations as they relate to GII. It also reviews the current status of standards for multimedia, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)/broadband integrated services digital network (B-ISDN), Universal Personal Telecommunications (UPT), Future Public Land Mobile Telecommunication System (FPLMTS), and telecommunications management network (TMN), which are all key elements in GII.