For Immediate Release
1200 G Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20005 202/628-6380 202/393-5453 (fax)	Contact: John Bernhards Director of Public Relations Phone: 202/434-8850 E-mail: jbernhards@atis.org

Committee T1 Develops Telecom Glossary Document Approved as American National Standard

September 4, 2001, Washington, D.C. -- Telecom Glossary 2000, a Web-based, hyperlinked, search engine-equipped telecommunications terminology standard, developed by Committee T1-Telecommunications, sponsored by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Standards (ATIS), has been approved as an American National Standard (T1.523) by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

The newly approved American National Standard is available at no cost at www.atis.org/tg2k and provides up-to-date, industry-approved, fully hyperlinked definitions for more than 8,000 telecommunication terms. It includes a customized, highly efficient search engine, makes extensive use of clickable graphics, and provides a comprehensive, hyperlinked acronym list. It uses audio and video clips to supplement particular narrative definitions (e.g., "hiss," "block distortion"). The result is an accurate, authoritative compendium of telecommunication terms and definitions that captures the best of the community's expertise in an innovative, highly accessible form. The standard's Web pages are designed to accommodate access for the disabled in accordance with guidelines for the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The new standard can be traced back to an earlier federal standard, FED-STD-1037C, published by the National Communications System (NCS)-sponsored Federal Telecommunication Standards Committee. That standard was mandatory for federal use and saw increasing acceptance from U.S. industry and international telecommunications organizations. It was the first federal (or industry) standard specifically designed to be accessed and used via the Internet. The FED-STD-1037C received more than 500,000 "hits" from users in hundreds of U.S. organizations and dozens of foreign countries during the four years it was available on the Web.

A T1 Glossary Ad Hoc Group (AHG) based in Technical Subcommittee T1A1 (Performance and Signal Processing) prepared American National Standard T1.523. The AHG substantially updated the federal standard terminology, eliminated obsolete terms, and added more than 2,300 new terms -- including over 1,200 terms drawn directly from
T1-developed American National Standards and Technical Reports. The group placed particular emphasis on terms describing emerging technologies (e.g., photonics, Internet) and emerging industry issues such as information security. A number of information security terms drawn from the National Security Agency (NSA)-developed National Information Systems Security (INFOSEC) glossary were included.

"Committee T1's development of the glossary was accomplished using an innovative "virtual meeting" approach," said Neal Seitz of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and chair of Committee T1's Technical Subcommittee T1A1.

The draft document was posted on an Internet-based project Web site. Participants reviewed the document online, and e-mailed their contributions to the document editors for on-line coordination with other Ad Hoc Group members. Once the group reached consensus on a term, its definition was posted on the Web site for general review. Use of the virtual meeting approach with the Telecom Glossary 2000 project is an industry first and this approach proved to be highly efficient. The standard was developed, coordinated, and approved by Committee T1 in less than 12 months.

The glossary is available at no cost by visiting www.atis.org/tg2k, or may be ordered on CD-ROM through the ATIS Document Center at www.atis.org. For more information, contact ATIS Director of Industry Forums Jim Crandall at jcrandall@atis.org.

About Standards Committee T1

Standards Committee T1 develops American National Standards, technical reports and technical requirements for telecommunications services, network interconnection, interoperability, and performance. Committee T1 provides technical input to the United States Department of State supporting U.S. participation in international standards bodies. More than 1,200 telecommunications engineers and technologists bring their expertise to Committee T1's six technical subcommittees. Committee T1 is a founding member of the Global Standards Collaboration (GSC) group of regional standards development organizations and works closely with the FCC on network reliability issues. Committee T1 is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). More information is available by visiting the Committee T1 Web site at www.t1.org. Committee T1 documents are available at the ATIS Document Center, located at www.atis.org.

About ATIS

The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) is a member company organization that defines standards and operating procedures for the telecommunications industry. Nearly 3,000 experts from 500 telecommunications companies participate in ATIS committees, whose work focus includes network interconnection standards, number portability, improved data transmission, wireless communications, Internet telephony, toll-free access, and order and billing issues. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) frequently refers operations issues to ATIS committees for recommended solutions. Members of ATIS and committee participants include, but are not limited to, telecommunications service providers, manufacturers, software developers, resellers, enhanced service providers, and providers of operations support. More information is available at www.atis.org.

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