EIDQ Brand Plenary Meeting

EUROPEAN directory assistance trade body, the EIDQ, held its Autumn plenary meeting last week focussing on the theme, “The Move from DA to Information Services“.

The event took place in Brand, Austria and was hosted by EIDQ Members Swisscom, Volt Delta International and Nuance Communications. Despite the current difficult financial climate, over 60% of the EIDQ Member companies were represented at the event.

Speakers from EIDQ Members and external companies looked at all aspects of the event’s theme – with presentations on a variety of new and innovative products and services designed to enhance or replace a DA call. As well as voice services, the meeting explored the impact of on-line directories, mobile applications and the explosion of social media.

The value and use of data was also studied and participants heard for the first time the results of a recent EIDQ Data Base survey which covered all aspects of how directory data is managed and used by EIDQ Members.

The latest EU Affairs were comprehensively covered by a representative from EADP (The European Association of Directory Publishers) and a regulatory panel session debated issues including the forthcoming review of the scope of the Universal Service Directive and the ongoing question of opt-out for mobile numbers.

Two working groups presented reports on their progress since the Spring 09 Plenary Meeting. The E.115 Protocol, Maintenance & Development working group had completed their work on the specification of the new structure for the directory and functionality lists which members approved. This will now proceed for final ITU-T approval in April 2010. The Business Strategy working group described its work which had concentrated on the data base survey mentioned earlier and the organisation of the Brand agenda. Both groups were given new mandates for the next period.

Two new Members were welcomed into the EIDQ - Joint Information Service Limited (Moscow) and Genesys Telecommunications Labs, Inc. And, it was announced that the Spring 2010 Plenary Meeting will be in Istanbul, Turkey with sponsorship by Turk Telekom

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