Anritsu Company announces that it is the first test solutions vendor to be granted membership into the Next Generation Mobile Network Alliance (NGMN). Anritsu's technology experts will work with the NGMN Alliance to devise strategies for maximizing the availability and service quality of the new mobile network technologies adopted by its members. The NGMN Alliance was founded in 2006 by leading network operators to develop a coherent vision for the mobile industry's evolution towards next-generation mobile broadband networks. NGMN's primary objective is to create a virtuous cycle of investment, innovation, and adoption of mobile broadband services with competitive price-performance ratios. NGMN supports and complements the work of existing standards development organizations by establishing clear performance targets, fundamental recommendations, functional requirements, and deployment scenarios. NGMN accomplishments in 2007 include agreement on a new IPR regime, clarifying the spectrum requirements for the next generation of mobile networks, initiation of trials for various candidate technologies, and continued contributions to standards development organizations. The 2008 roadmap of the NGMN Alliance emphasises the need for the finalization of the relevant standards, focuses on developing the required elements of the ecosystem, and achieving results from technology evaluation studies and validation trials. Dr. Peter Meissner, operating officer of NGMN Ltd., welcomed Anritsu as an NGMN sponsor. "To ensure proper end-to-end interoperability of terminals, network infrastructure, service platforms, and legacy systems during the standardization and early system design phase is crucial for the successful development and deployment of next-generation mobile systems. NGMN is glad to have Anritsu on board, along with other test solution providers and testing houses, as this will greatly help us to achieve our challenging objectives and to make the vision of NGMN reality." The experience and wealth of knowledge that Anritsu will bring to the Alliance is born out of the company's global strategy of providing a true end-to-end portfolio of test and monitoring solutions, focused on delivering the reality of communications network convergence and the ubiquitous network society. Anritsu's portfolio spans the complete network lifecycle through research and development, conformance test, manufacturing, installation and maintenance, network monitoring, and OSS service assurance. With engineers that have a wealth of experience developing solutions for 3G, HSPA Evolution, WiMAX, MIMO, LTE, and high-speed optical and IP networks across the whole industry, Anritsu is ready and able to play a vital role within the NGMN working groups.