International

The communications industry is fully global in scope, with equipment and services often defined internationally rather than nationally. The Standards and Specifications, Codes and Guidelines developed by Communications Alliance are for use in Australia, but often with an international base.

We in Australia are a relatively small part of the global market, and it is generally very costly to develop an “Australia only special” device or service. There are two direct consequences of this:-

• We in Communications Alliance must be aware of international developments in the different standards developing organisations; and
• If we need a special requirement for our market, the most economic way to obtain this is to have the requirement included in an international standard.

This requires that Communications Alliance's working level committees have to be aware of international developments while keeping their main focus on local work. Communications Alliance has special arrangements in place to assist this.

One of the responsibilities of the Communications Alliance Reference Panels is to monitor relevant overseas standards activity and facilitate participation in that standards development activity where appropriate.