ICT Working Group Meeting Go back »
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Time2011-09-30 | 09:00
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Venue:Meeting Room C411A, European Chamber Beijing Office
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Address:Lufthansa Centre, 50 Liangmaqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100125
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Fee:Members: FREE
Meeting Minutes
1. Member discussion on ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) developments/policy in China (follow-up on 28th September seminar on IoT)
The Working Group members were briefed on the seminar on the ‘Internet of Things’, jointly organised by the European Chamber, USITO and JEITA on 28th September 2011. The event involved industry members of the Chamber, USITO and JEITA sharing their insights on the topic in terms of recent developments, best practices and opportunities and challenges in China.
Speakers were as follows:
- Asimakis Kokkos, Head of China Industry Environment, Nokia Siemens Networks
- Xinli Hou, Head of Technology Strategy, Ericsson China and Nort h East Asia
- Michael Cheung, Partner, Telecommunications, Ernst & Young
- Roland Savoy, Vice President of Giesecke & Devrient Group, Managing Director of Giesecke & Devrient (China) Information Technologies Co. Ltd
- Taiichi Inoue, General Manager, Center for Strategic Management & Innovation, Nomura Research Institute, Ltd
- Tony Liu, BD executive of IBM Research China
It was commented that a key theme that came out of the seminar was the important issue of standards. The lack of common standards in IoT poses a challenge to the full widespread adoption of IoT technology and its varied applications. All key stakeholders (industry and other) need to come together and cooperate with the objective of developing common and interoperable standards for IoT so that the technology’s full potential can be realised internationally.
2. Update on Brussels Circuit Lobby Meetings
The Chair of the ICT Working Group briefed the Working Group members on the meetings he attended during the recent Brussels Circuit/European Tour for the Position Paper 2011/2012. This included the following key meetings to discuss the ICT Position Paper issues as well as other recent developments for the industry in China affecting our members:
- Director-General Jean-Luc Demarty , DG Trade, European Commission
- Vice-President Neelie Kroes, DG Digital Agenda, European Commission
- Commissioner Karel De Gucht, DG Trade, European Commission
- Working-level meeting DG Information Society & Media, European Commission
- Lunch with PRC Ambassador to the EU, Song Zhe
Key Outcomes:
- ICT Working Group positions were taken onboard and discussed at high level and working level.
- Recent developments regarding the Working Group’s concerns/lobbying efforts on MIIT’s draft EUHT standard were communicated to EC as well as PRC Ambassador to EU.
- The proposal of more cooperation and alignment between the European Chamber and ETSI (in terms of lobbing key messages/positions) was discussed and agreed upon. Agreed to follow-up through meetings during ETSI’s visit to Beijing in November.
Further details of the Brussels circuit / European Tour meetings will be circulated shortly.
3. Update on Lobbying regarding UHT/EUHT standard
Lobbying to date
A briefing was given on the Chamber’s lobbying to CCSA and MIIT on the EUHT standard, including:
1) 5th September 2011: Meeting with CCSA Secretary-General Mr. Yang Zemin
2) 9th September 2011: Meeting with MIIT, Director of Department of Science & Technology Division of Communications Standards, Mr. Qian Hang
3) 30th September 2011: Letter to MIIT Department of Science & Technology Division of Communications Standards regarding their call for public comment on the EUHT standard.
Key messages/concerns conveyed to CCSA and MIIT in letter/meetings:
1) Process: Concerns over internal approval procedures that have been followed to pass the UHT/EUHT standard to the public approval and final review stage. While we understand that CCSA has followed its internal procedures, the standard drafting/approval process has lacked transparency and has continued to the final approval stage despite significant opposition from a number of the technical committee voting members and observers.
2) Technical details: Technical concerns surrounding the technology of UHT/EUHT that have not been addressed through the standards drafting and approval process. These include concerns around EUHT seriously interfering with existing W-LAN and Bluetooth technologies in the 2.4GHz band that remain unaddressed by the standard.
3) Interoperability and global alignment: There are concern regarding the technical interoperability and compatibility of UHT/EUHT with existing international WLAN standards, including the current most widely used and recognised IEEE international wireless broadband 802.11 standards. Recognising that Interoperability of global standards is key to innovation in the ICT sector, this deviation from the good practice of global alignment that has been demonstrated in other areas of ICT standardisation is in danger of harming both Chinese industry and end-users in the long-term.
4) Mandatory requirement: Whilst reassurances have been made in our meeting with CCSA that the UHT/EUHT standard will remain a voluntary standard, our members are deeply concerned, based on prior experience with other similar initiatives (e.g. WAPI) that UHT/EUHT will become mandatory through type-approval criteria or other means. We strongly urge MIIT not to pass UHT/EUHT as a mandatory standard either explicitly or implicitly through mandatory certification criteria, government procurement requirements, radio spectrum allocation, or other means. The market should be left to determine the implementation of UHT/EUHT standards so as not to artificially distort competition, harm innovation, and increase costs.
Next Steps
There was discussion on what the follow-up lobbying efforts should be regarding EUHT:
- It was agreed that any follow-up action should focus on highlighting the risk of the EUHT standard becoming mandatory (either directly as a mandatory standard or defacto via type- approval, radio spectrum allocation, govt. procurement requirements etc.). This would be the key issue for companies and a barrier to trade.
- It was agreed that follow-up action should be coordinated with other relevant stakeholders, including USITO e.g. joint letter to escalate pressure on the issue. We should discuss this proposal with the other stakeholders and determine best timing/recipient for such action i.e. following further news/developments on the standard, MIIT and/or other recipients.
*Further actions regarding this will be communicated to the Working Group
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