Who’s who in the Infranet Initiative group

Membership in the Infranet Initiative group is split into the Infranet Initiative Council and working groups. The IIC consists of top executives at global vendors and service providers who “have the seniority within their respective companies to set policy and direction, including the ability to exert influence over participation in standards bodies,” states the IIC. As of mid-September, companies represented on the IIC are: AOL, British Telecom, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, France Telecom, HP, Huawei Technologies, IBM, Juniper, KT of Korea, Level 3 Communications, Lucent, Oracle, Orange, Polycom, Qwest, Siemens, Telenor and Telus.

Vendors and service providers represented at the working group level are: Airespace, Bezeq, Masergy Communications, NetScaler, Nextone Communications and Ulticom.

The member roster is an impressive start for a group that’s barely a year old, says Mark Bieberich, an analyst with The Yankee Group. Still, he and other analysts note the absence of companies such as AT&T, SBC and Verizon on the telecom side; Alcatel and Cisco on the network gear side; and Sun among IT companies.

The group says it continues to pursue these and other members for participation, noting that it in “in the process” of adding seven new members across the various industry segments.