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

ATIS Adopts New Rules for Populating Geographic Information Tied to Phone Calls

Standardized Procedures Will Improve Call Billing, Enable Delivery of More Call Data

December 15, 2004, Washington – ATIS today announced that it has finalized the rules for carriers on how to populate the Jurisdiction Information Parameter (JIP), which will further refine call routing and inter-carrier billing.

ATIS’ Network Interconnection Interoperability Forum (NIIF) outlined procedures for carriers to follow to populate a six-digit JIP in the Signaling System 7 (SS7) Initial Address Message (IAM) for each call. These rules represent industry consensus on how to include the geographic information for call origination.

The evolution of number portability and roaming have resulted in the calling directory number no longer being an accurate reflection of the geographic location of the originating party. By populating the JIP, calls can be routed more precisely and inter-carrier billing can be determined more precisely.

The population of JIP data is recommended for all wireline calls and, where technically feasible, for calls originating from wireless devices. The industry consensus on JIP population rules now gives the wireless industry a goal to meet moving forward.

NIIF consulted with several other standards groups during the creation of these rules. The rules have been endorsed by the ATIS Ordering and Billing Forum, the ATIS Packet Technologies and Systems Committee (formerly T1S1) and TIA’s TR-45 committee.

The rules have been published in NIIF Reference Document ATIS-0300011 “Part III, Installation and Maintenance Responsibilities for SS7 Links and Trunks.” The document is available via the ATIS Document Center at www.atis.org.

NIIF provides an open forum for the discussion and resolution, on a voluntary basis, of industry-wide issues associated with telecommunications network interconnection and interoperability that involve network architecture, management, test and operations.

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

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