The International Telecommunications Union is in the initial stages of developing an expanded version of the H.324 videoconferencing standard that would operate over cellular networks, according to Electronic Engineering Times. The new standard – provisionally dubbed H.324/M – would pave the way for mobile videophones, which, the paper speculates, could take the form of the Nokia 9000 combined cellphone and personal digital assistant. The Union subcommittee charged with developing the standard is reported to have made enough progress on transmission techniques so that a standard will be ratified at a meeting on November 11: the necessary additions to the H.324 are said to include forward error correction, and re-transmission codes. Balloting on the initial standard is not, however, expected to take place before next March. Meanwhile, the first stages of testing the H.324 standard have been completed at the International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium, with 13 vendors testing their video products over standard telephone lines (CI No 3,030).
