The European Telecommunications Standards Institute, whose founder members include Microsoft, IBM and BT, has been set up to develop an international-standards strategy for manufacturers as advances in technology and communications continue.
And Digital Jersey have been invited to join the group, which shapes best practice in the tech industry.
Tony Moretta, chief executive of Digital Jersey, who made the announcement during a Chamber of Commerce lunch yesterday, said that ETSI was developing standards for ‘smart cities’ – which use digital technology
to manage a city’s assets, including schools, libraries and hospitals.
Speaking after the event, Mr Moretta said that by having a seat at the table not only would the Island have their say on international standards but that Jersey was ‘perfectly positioned’ as a test-bed for firms to trial new ideas and innovations.
‘It will help us to market ourselves to those companies,’ he said.
‘If we want to establish ourselves as a test-bed because they will know that we are compliant with the most up-to-date international standards.
‘We have the infrastructure in place and companies can test something in Jersey knowing that they can then roll it out in larger areas.’
During the Chamber of Commerce event, which was hosted at the Radisson Hotel, Mr Moretta said that Jersey was a ‘smart Island’ with technological infrastructure that was the ‘envy of the world’.
Mr Moretta added that the UK had recently committed to a ‘full fibre’ programme but that by next February every internet connection in Jersey would be high-speed fibre. And he said that sensors would be used on Island buses to detect air quality as part of a programme to interlink networks and devices dubbed ‘the internet of things’.
‘As an example of the flexibility of the internet of things, one of our next initiatives is a combination that is putting air quality sensors on buses,’ he said.
‘When connected to the Bus Tracker IDs we can see what the readings are in real time as a bus moves along its route.’
