The Insulated Cable Engineers Association (ICEA--www.icea.net) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA--www.tiaonline.org) recently announced that they have signed a cooperation agreement that provides for the development of joint standards for telecommunications cables, which will be reference in TIA documents and databases. The agreement will run for three years and can be renewed for additional terms.
TIA standards have referred to ICEA standards in the past. Now the documents will become joint standards of the TIA and ICEA, although each organization will reference the joint documents by the respective organization's own identification number. The TIA said in a statement announcing the agreement that with the proliferation of new materials and cable designs, having joint standards from these two organizations will help harmonize this portion of industry standards.
"ICEA standards are of interest to industry participants worldwide," says Lauri J. Hiivala, ICEA president. "This includes cable manufacturers, architects and engineers, utility and manufacturing plant personnel, telecommunications engineers, consultants and OEMs. By having both ICEA and TIA using exactly the same technical criteria, the industry will have the best specifications and standards for delivery of next-generation network services."
Added TIA president Matthew J. Flanigan, "We have referenced ICEA standards for many years in TIA standards. By now having joint standards between the two organizations, there will be clear direction to the industry on which cables to use to implement standardized telecommunications distribution systems."
As was done in the past, ICEA committees will take the lead on the preparation and revision of the documents, but they now also go through TIA's ANSI-accredited balloting process to develop joint TIA/ICEA American National Standards.
