Predecessor |
OSI/Network Management Forum TeleManagement Forum IPsphere Forum |
---|---|
Formation | 1988 |
Type | Non-profit |
Website | www |
The TM Forum (formerly TeleManagement Forum and the Network Management Forum) is a non-profit industry association, for service providers and their suppliers in the telecommunications and entertainment industries. It acquired the IPsphere Forum group in 2008.
Members include telephone companies, cable operators, network operators, software suppliers, equipment suppliers and systems integrators. As of December 2012[update], the Forum had over 900 member companies in different countries.
TM Forum provides information and support to help its members with creating and delivering profitable services. These include industry research and benchmarks, technology roadmaps, best-practice guidebooks, software standards and interfaces, as well as certified training, conferences and publications. The Forum also provides its member community with marketing and networking opportunities.
The OSI/Network Management Forum was founded in 1988 by eight companies to collaboratively solve systems and operational management issues with the . In 1998 the name was changed to the TeleManagement Forum.
A group called the Infranet Initiative Council was created by Juniper Networks in April 2004. The group said it was concerned with quality, reliability and security interfaces between telecommunications service providers that were providing services for the Internet.Pradeep Sindhu used the term "infranet" to compare the public Internet to more traditional physical infrastructure. Juniper was joined by British Telecom, China Unicom, Ericsson, France Télécom, Hewlett-Packard, KT Corporation, Siemens, Telenor, and Tellabs. The IPsphere Forum was founded in June 2005 at the Supercomm 2005 trade show in Chicago with those members.Cisco Systems and Alcatel were added when it adopted the IPsphere name.Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) joined in 2007, and it established a liaison with the Tele-Management Forum later that year. IPsphere was mentioned by executives in a trade show during 2007. By September 2008 IPsphere Forum merged with the TM Forum.