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

Service Providers, Manufacturers, Software Providers Launch Comprehensive Standards Initiative to Resolve Ordering, Billing, Data Interchange Issues

July 7, 2003, Washington, D.C. – Wireline and wireless service providers, manufacturers, and software providers are now working together, as part of a newly established focus group under ATIS. The “ATIS Data Interchange Focus Group” will develop a comprehensive plan to determine a suite of standards and industry solutions that support service ordering, provisioning and billing across multiple service provider boundaries.

Companies participating in the ATIS Data Interchange Focus Group include Alcatel, AT&T, BellSouth, Billing Concepts, Cisco Systems, SBC Communications, Leapstone Systems, U.S. Cellular, Verizon, NightFire Software, and Intrado. The focus group is one of several recently launched by ATIS’ Technical and Operations (TOPS) Council, chaired by Bill Smith, Chief Product Development and Technology Officer for BellSouth. ATIS is organizing similar focus groups as part of a strategic effort by ATIS to address standardization requirements for key industry priorities, to include VoIP, Mobile Wireless Services, Wide Area Ethernet, and Network Security.

“A key challenge we are facing as an industry is the lack of standards for new technologies that allow service providers – including local service providers, interexchange carriers, wireless service providers, Internet service providers and others – to exchange essential ordering, billing and provisioning data in a seamless environment,” said Susan M. Miller, president and CEO of ATIS. “Much work has been done in these areas, but there’s been a general failure by the industry to fully coordinate standards work. Data interchange is a critical priority, and the industry needs to tightly coordinate standards activities and create sustainable solutions, in order to launch new products and services.”

NightFire Software’s Executive Vice President and Chief Strategist, Venkates Swaminathan serves as the leader of the Data Interchange Focus Group and is a member of the ATIS Board of Directors. “Without the right standards in place for how a service gets provisioned and billed across service provider boundaries, it’s impossible to deliver services in a cost-effective way.”

Swaminathan says that the focus group will focus on the processes, data models, and implementation agreements necessary to deliver new services, and include not only billing and provisioning, but mediation and service management as well. “Companies will benefit from the Data Interchange Focus Group’s effort by realizing quicker implementation timeframes and reduced implementation costs, as a result of repeatable, reusable processes,” adds Swaminathan.

“Our goal for this and other ATIS focus groups is to identify existing standards for the industry’s key priorities, and then determine what standards do not currently exist that the industry critically needs. From there, we can define how, when, and where needed standards will be developed and made available,” says Miller. “It’s a significant undertaking, one that will require considerable and careful coordination among the different focus groups and standards bodies,” added Miller.

About ATIS

ATIS is a technical planning and standards development organization that is committed to rapidly developing and promoting technical and operations standards for the communications and related information technologies industry worldwide using a pragmatic, flexible and open approach. Over 1,400 participants from more than 400 communications companies are active in ATIS’ 16 industry committees, and its Incubator Solutions Program. www.atis.org

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