The next gen in mobile phones

Jacob John has had a rewarding career in the Telecom Industry

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BY USHA \_ RAMANUJAM .;;.iiaiii ARVIND

V;;;:::mmunications engineer

Jacob John has won international recognition for his outstanding contributions ro 3GPP or Third Generation Partne r ship Project, an innovation in the high -speed cellular services known as 3G.

Joh n, who is a distinguished member of the Motorola 1fobi Li cy's Standards and Research Group, was bestowed an international standards award at the 3GPP Radio Access I erwork (RAN) Group meeting at Maira in February. John was nominated for the prestigious award by RANS chai r John Brown of NTT DoCoMo, one of the world's largest mobile communication operarors.

Conferring the award, Brown sta ted that.: "Jacob John has contributed significantly to the technical and manager ial reguirements of TSG RA.!'\!

\Xlo rking Group 5. Furthermore, he has canied bis knowledge and technical expertise into d1e Global Certification Forum (GCF), greatly beneficing the wider device - related industry. L1 all aspects of his work he has been an outstanding ambassador for his company and RANS and thoroughly deserves the recognition within the 3GPP co tn In unity "

A joint collaboration between eLite telecom groups in t ortb America, Asia and Europe, 3GPP or the Third Generation Partne r ship Project is the international standards' organisation responsible for the development of mobile communications standards of 3GPP technologies. These include d,e second generation (2G) global system for mobile communications or GSM, universal mobile telecommunications system or UMTS (3 G ) and long term evo lution or LTE , the fourth generation cmnmunication network for high speed darn transfer (4G) RAN is one of d1e four technical specification groups (TSG).

Talking to Indian Unk about winning d1e award, John said, "(The award) means a lot to me as

Jacob John

I feel honoured, but at the same cime hLmib led, to be recognised by an international standards organisation • 3GPP. I definitely consider this award as one o f my greatest achievements as a telecom professional."

" lr means a lot to my famil y as welJ who have been putcing up with my freguent kmg haul travel and being away from home," he added.

The award is in recognition of John's extensive contribution as a leading test and cerci fication expert not only in Australia, but worldwide.

He was una n imously elected as Vice Chair of 3GPP RANS, a group covering all leading carriers, device vendors and test industry in 2009 and again in 2011. The RANS group is responsible for the development of conformance test standards for mobile phones "These standards are then appLied in the certification of mobi le phones by certification organisations like GCF," he explained.

John'.s core area of e.'lpertise is technical management and leadership in the field of wireless protocol development, testing and certification.

To be a successful leader in 3GPP,John beLieves that one has to combine strong technical proficienc y with astute diplomatic skills. Disp laying fairness and consideration, the ro le seeks co find consensus among competing .stakeholders. Through his wuque leadership style, be has not only managed tin1ely development, but also strictly adhered to high international conformance standards.

In 201 1, John was a finalist for the Australian Communications Ambassador Award for his strong leadership skills and visib le contribution to the telecom industry.

"I took d1e lead role of aligning Australian regulatory requirements with die relevant international standards. Being one of die few delegates in 3GPP and Global Certificacion forum (GCF) from Australia, I have always promoted Australian interests and reguirements in these forums," he said.

He has made extens ive inputs to the development of the Australian RegLtlatory Standards for GSM and I1ff-2000 Customer Eguipment as member of Communications Alliance wo r king committees. John has also served as a vital source of technical information on 3GPP Standards and Regulatory Standards in othu jurisdictions to ACMA and Emergency Services Organisarions.

"Tn 3GPP, one of my significant achievements has been the o n- tin1e development of conformance test standards for LTE that allowed certification to be activated in December 2010. This in rum enabled the launch of LTE devices by leading Operacors like Verizon, AT&T and NTT DoCoMo," John explained.

He continues to serve technical- consultative roles at the Australian Regul atory Authoricies and Industry Forums such as Communications Alliance and AMTA, as well as leadership roles in Internatio nal Standards Deve lopment and Certification Organisation s

The e lectronics and commmucations engineer, who hails from the lnd.ian state of Kerala, completed his Masters in Computing from U TS Sydney. Since his move co Australia, he bas clocked over rwo decades of experience in the sophisticated area of systems des ign, development and testing.

Before joining Motorola's Australia Software Cencre in 1997, Job n has worked for the NSW State Government as Senior Engineer Special Projects in the Department of Gaming & Racing.

Speaking about his role in the rapidly changing industry that has witnessed dramatic overhaLtls in the past rwo decades, John beLieves he was "very fortunate to be part of the l\fotorola team responsible for die development of world's first commercial GPRS phone in lace 1990s".

" I started in 3GPP contributing to the development of GPRS Standards (2 G ) in 1999. From 2001, I began actively contrjbuting to the develo pment of UMTS Standards and finall y LTE since 2007. It has been exciting to see mobile data tech1iology evolving from dial-up speed during GPRS times to today's broadband speed d1rough LTE. We are headed cowards even higher data rates cluough aggregation of carriers as well as efficient use of spectrum," he added.

At Motorola, John leads the Test Standards and Certification team, which is responsible for generation of new ideas, and introduction of these ideas into the industry standards, including development of conformance tests for certification. " Some part of the 3GPP test standards are applied as regularory reguirements in many jurisdictions including Australia," he exp lained. The remaining is left up to d1e certification organisations Like Global Ce r tification Forum (GCF) and PCS Type Certification Review Board (PTCRB) to appl y in certification.

Leveraging on his roots, John has also lobbied extensively w i th bis Indian counterparts over the past decade.

''l\fany of d1e multinational companies are represented in 3GPP and GCF by Indian origin professiona ls and more and more Indian Telecom companies have started activel y participating in 3GPP and GCF i n the last few years. In fact, the next GCF meeting is being held at Delhi. One o f the key objectives of chis meeting is to promote GCF to the Indian mobil e industry," he revealed.

John is extremely upbeat about the future of this cutting edge industry. "Consumers can expect the mobile revolution to continue m1al1ated with more and more features and appLications packed into a converged device. In addition to d1e significant improvements in data rates, 3GPP is working in the areas o f energy saving and s upport of diverse applications Like Rich Communication Suire (RCSe) and WebRTC," he seated.

Another area of strong activity in 3GPP is support of arplications for 'Machine-roMaclune (M2M) Communication' service in mass markets. M2M products are utilized in the areas of transport, logistics, automobile, home automation, digital heald1 and fitness, remote monicoring and control , and energy management, be pointed out.

Besides commm1ications techn o log )', jacob John is eguaUy passionate about badnunton Despite hectic demands on his time, the former scate and nationals p layer continues to represent the g ame at i\ifasters level, hav ing won the NSW A - Grade Men's doubles with Yogen Bhatnagar

John's core area of expertise is technical management and leadership in the field of wireless protocol development, testing and certification