For Immediate Release
ATIS 1200 G Street, NW Suite 500 Washington, DC 20005	Contact: Trish Gessner Phone: 202-434-8851 E-mail: tgessner@atis.org www.atis.org

Telecom Industry Releases Mobile Wireless Services Work Plan

October 11, 2004, Washington, D.C. – ATIS, the leader in communications and information technology standards development, today announced the release of its Mobile Wireless Services (MWS) Priority Work Plan, a comprehensive guide for the creation of new industry standards for converging multimedia architectures across wireline, PCS/cellular and WiFi networks.

The Work Plan is the result of more than a year of technical assessment and analysis of mobile wireless services by the ATIS Technology and Operations (TOPS) Council’s MWS Focus Group, which was led by senior executives from leading telecom carriers and manufacturing companies. As part of the process, standards and protocols in development by ATIS and other standards development organizations were reviewed, assessed for completeness and, where appropriate, recommended in the plan for use to achieve an interoperable, implementable end-to-end solution for mobile wireless services. Areas where additional standards work is needed also were identified.

Implementation of the MWS Work Plan will help streamline the ability for carriers to deliver anytime, anywhere communications services by providing standards for network interoperability as well as various service and network attributes.

“ATIS believes a convergence of wireline, PCS/cellular and WiFi networks is necessary if carriers are going to be able to deliver a seamless stream of communications to consumers anytime, anywhere,” said Susan M. Miller, president and CEO of ATIS. “Total convergence is achievable, and it will be an integral component in the development of next-generation networks.”

The endorsement of the MWS Work Plan by industry’s most senior technology executives reaffirms its commitment to achieve interoperable services whether at home or abroad, rallies interests behind a single path forward and loudly communicates an industry desire for a unified global approach to converge not only networks, but services as well.

The MWS Work Plan focuses its primary recommendations on the convergence of the major service categories of voice and presence/messaging services. Within the work plan, voice services are examined in the following areas: voice protocol – architecture; security; performance (QOS); voice interoperability; SIP-T interoperability; network configuration, management and control; mobility management; and user performance. The sections on Presence and Messaging Service focus on: cross-network interoperability; protocol architecture; network configuration, management and control; security; performance (QOS); inter-provider usage metering; and messaging cross-network interoperability.

Recommendations to address federal requirements and ordering, billing and provisioning also are included.

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. Participants from more than 350 communications companies are active in ATIS’ 20 industry committees and its Incubator Solutions Program. www.atis.org

About the ATIS TOPS Council

ATIS’ TOPS Council is comprised of chief technology officers and other senior executives from the communications industry’s leading companies. Its standards work plans guide the advancement of suites of necessary standards that result in interoperable, implementable, end-to-end solution for priority issues. Adherence to these standards will provide cost-effective development roadmaps to service providers deploying carrier-grade IP-based communications services. The first five priorities identified by the TOPS Council are: VoIP, Network Security, Data Interchange, Mobile Wireless Services and Wide Area Ethernet. Work plans for VoIP, Network Security and Data Interchange were release in June 2004 and are in the implementation phase. The Wide Area Ethernet Work Plan also is being released today. (See accompanying release: ATIS Releases Blueprint for Attaining Standardized Global Communications Network.)