Personal Broadband Industry Association Information

The PBIA is a non-profit industry organization providing a unified voice for the companies committed to rapidly creating a marketplace for ubiquitous, affordable broadband technologies and services. The PBIA serves as an umbrella of an industry vision - not just a single technology, band of spectrum or standard - of delivering primary, ubiquitous broadband access to individuals regardless of location or context, at affordable prices. There is an acknowledged market opportunity for Personal Broadband services , however, the industry consensus required to drive the capital outlay and to deliver sustainable solutions for this market do not yet exist. PBIA members are working in concert to solve the fundamental problems that exist in the business market today - to identify and prove the market opportunity for new products and services and to reduce and manage the risk associated with the deployment of these products and services. Demonstrating market momentum is the key to managing market risk. A critical mass of industry players who have identified and articulated the market opportunity and are collectively taking steps towards its realization. This is the guiding precept in the formation of the Personal Broadband Industry Association. The PBIA strategic business leaders can build financial and market support for their businesses by leverage existing relationships, resources and market assets. While the selection of viable technologies is a key factor in creating this market momentum, it is only one piece of the puzzle. Market momentum is created when infrastructure providers, network operators, service providers, technology providers, and others come together with the goal of promoting a common global business and market vision - exactly the focus of the PBIA. The PBIA's primary activities include: Primary market and industry research Market education, focused primarily on the capital markets Industry marketing, delivering a unified message Incubation of new business and technology partnerships Regulatory strategies, combining the interests of member organizations A unified voice In less than a decade, the Internet has grown from a small academic network to a primary method of communications and a primary resource for information and commerce. As Internet access speeds leapt from the original 1.2 kbps to today's consumer broadband services in excess 12 Mbps, Internet services have become an integral part of people's lives. By the end of 2002, there were over 63 million broadband subscribers worldwide - a 72% increase from the previous year - and the numbers are continuing to grow at a staggering rate. Ubiquity, real-time accessibility, seamless interactivity and affordability have become the new requirements for success and growth of the Internet marketplace. This vision cannot be realized with the current communications industry infrastructure. The market that fostered the birth of a global personal communications industry has been humbled by financial realities and has fractured into groups of regulatory influencers and disparate, public entities. These groups share a common vision - to meet the new market requirements - but have been narrowly focused on specific technology solutions. The Personal Broadband Industry Association is the organization focused to fulfill that common vision, a market-facing organization representing the business and marketing concerns that sit above the technology work of the standards and regulatory organizations.