IDCMA
acronymnetworkingvendors & products
Independent Data Communications Manufacturers Association: the trade body for vendors competing with the carriers.
After the interconnect decisions there was an industry of companies selling equipment the telephone company had not built, and it needed a voice in proceedings that would decide whether it could keep doing so. IDCMA was that voice. It is a reminder that a market opened by a regulator stays open only while somebody argues for it, and that a great deal of the technical history in this period was settled in hearings rather than in laboratories.
Also known as: independent data communications manufacturers association