So the Commerce Department developed a program and began funding cities and states to create inter-operable radio systems.

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It enabled a horde of engineers from around the world to improve the technology as they competed to build inter-operable products.

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NATO, they must spend more money on defence and transform their bloated armies into smaller fighting forces, easily inter-operable with America's.

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Then in April Gree announced a similar deal with Mig33, a gaming company popular in Southeast Asia to make their games inter-operable.

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The trust frameworks are designed to be public, standardised and inter-operable, so that people and companies can play various roles in the framework and still manage trusted relationships.

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Establishing the identity, and the associated trust, is made very difficult because there are no central and inter-operable agencies or bodies, as we have in the real world.

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Units are inter-operable so Nato countries can put together a defensive package and deploy it to a far-flung region, as the Alliance is planning to do on the Turkish-Syrian border.

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Europe believes a sat-nav system that is independent of GPS but inter-operable with it will drive a multi-billion euro industry in which receivers find their way into many more markets - from consumer mobile devices such as cell phones to safety-critical applications such as guided trains and buses.

BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | EU-US strike sat-navigation deal