It’s been a few months since I became chair of TUANZ. And getting a bit closer to the action has been a bit of an eye-opener. It is probably not well understood anywhere how much activity occurs in this representation area, but I can tell you – it’s abuzz. At every turn, there seems to be more for TUANZ to do: to advocate, to prod, and to keep honest.
TUANZ was born when we worried about phones and faxes, maybe some baud rates. Competition was in its infancy in our world. I know TUANZ has had a good hand in the way we have developed, and continues to have a role to play as we move into the exciting unimagined world of UFB, 4G, and whatever else we have not dreamed up yet.
It’s a time when the pace of technology change is blinding, when new ideas dawn daily, when there is major blurring at the edges of previously separate knowledge areas. And it is all hugely important – we keep cresting false summits in our reach to deliver the information age. Every day we realise there is yet further to go; we are all driven by an increasing thirst for all facets of information when and where we demand it. New players are swarming to the industry, old players are changing their games. TUANZ is there watching keenly.
We try to act as a simple moderator – there is an awful lot of rushing about going on. There is a lot of debate about who should do what, and there is ever more of the de rigueur confusion that seems part and parcel of our telecommunications world. Every now and then we have to come back to the basics and define the need. In many respects that is simple: cost aligned rates, open access, seamless cross border usage. But these simple outcomes get clouded by the murk-mongers, and even more clouded by the endless possibilities afforded by telecommunications.
So, we moderate – Ernie is not only our consumer who will not get bullied, he’s our video-ref who watches the replays and makes the calls, and he’s our coach – urging us to realise how much more we can achieve. It’s a valuable role TUANZ plays, and a complex one. The next few years will be turbulent as the buggy-whip makers turn to spark-plug production and barriers to entry become a reason to look for other ways in. As someone once said: no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should…..
Pat