TIA Policy Outlook 2008

The following will provide you with details about upcoming activities of TIA's Government Affairs Department, as well as information about how to stay informed of our activities and how to get directly involved.

Key Dates for Your Calendar

• April 8, 2008
  9th Annual Spring Policy Summit, Washington, D.C.
• June 16-19, 2008
  NXTComm, Las Vegas, Nev.
  

TIA Policy Committees – Your Ticket to Shaping Our Agenda

In an effort to better serve our members on policy-related matters, we continuously update our distribution lists to ensure that our member company representatives have a voice and receive information. Below are the Policy Committees and Divisions available to TIA members.

• International Committee: Establishes TIA positions on international policy, including matters with USITO, the association's international office in Beijing, to provide assistance for TIA member companies in China.
• Public Policy Committee: Primary policy group responsible for establishing and advocating TIA positions on domestic public policy issues and strategies that represent the consensus of the membership.
• Accessibility Working Group: Works on issues related to efforts to ensure that persons with disabilities have access to communications products and services. 
• CALEA Working Group: CALEA refers to the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. This group works to find a balance between law enforcement’s request for surveillance information and what is technically feasible and required by the CALEA statute.
• Broadband and Convergence Working Group: This working group furthers broadband deployment and the facilitation of convergence, which refers to broadband-enabled voice, video, data and other intermingled services offered over innovative devices.
• Public Safety Communications Working Group: This group focuses on public safety communication issues such as E911, emergency alerts, interoperability, funding for public safety purposes and so forth.
• Spectrum Policy Working Group: This group focuses on spectrum use, management and availability. Activities include FCC filings on spectrum-related issues and setting TIA policy positions on spectrum matters.
• Communications Research Division: The division advocates for increased federal funding for communications-specific, pre-competitive basic research.
• Satellite Communications Division: The division works closely with Engineering Committee TR-34 to assure that the committee's work is consistent with regulatory and other policy issues addressed by the division.
• User Premises Equipment Division (UPED): Provides engineering and technical guidance on issues of interest to manufacturers of customer premises equipment, including enterprise customers. The division works closely with TIA Engineering Committees TR-30, TR-41 and TR-42.
• Wireless Communications Division: Supports the needs and interests of manufacturers of two-way radio equipment. Within the division, the Private Radio Section (PRS) concentrates on commercial two-way radio systems utilized by the industrial, transportation and governmental sectors and TRIC, below.
• Technical Regulatory Issues Committee: Promotes mechanisms to streamline and clarify FCC certification processes and procedures through interaction with the FCC, its Office of Engineering and Technology and its laboratory.

TIA Publications – Your Link to Our Activities

If you are not already receiving the following publications, you should! TIA's publications are your source of information about what TIA's Government Affairs Department is doing. See below for details and sign-up information.

• Washington Weekly Advance: TIA's weekly e-mail contains calendar items for the upcoming week, informing members of policy activities at TIA, around the Washington, D.C., area and abroad.
• TIA Network: A weekly e-newsletter from TIA, The TIA Network brings news analysis and commentary to help guide companies through the communications revolution.

Not a member of TIA?

Visit our Join TIA page to get more information and see the other benefits of TIA membership.