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, 3GPP, ETSI TISPAN Convene to Discuss IP Multimedia Subsytems (IMS), and Coordinated “Next Gen” Standards Effort

March 21, 2005, Washington – ATIS is hosting two significant meetings between global communications standards bodies from March 30 – April 1, 2005, in Herndon, Virginia, as part of a continuing dialogue among global communications standards organizations regarding the standardization of IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) over fixed broadband access, as well as global Next Generation Network (NGN) standardization efforts.

The series of meetings include a March 30-31 workshop of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the European Telecommunication Standards Institute’s (ETSI) Telecoms & Internet Converged Services & Protocols for Advanced Networks (TISPAN) committee. The workshop’s intent is to advance the technical work on the 3GPP-developed IMS architecture for use as a basis for the convergence of wireline and wireless multimedia networks.

IMS is a key architecture identified in ATIS’ priority standards work plans for Voice over IP and Mobile Wireless Services released last year, as well as ATIS’ recently released “Next Generation Network Framework.” The ATIS NGN document defines requirements and architecture for NGN standardization activities from the perspective of ATIS member companies. Immediately following the workshop, on April 1, a separate meeting of representatives between ATIS and ETSI TISPAN representatives will occur to discuss a global approach to frameworks and requirements for Next Generation Networks within Europe and North America.

More than 150 participants representing a wide variety of the world’s leading carriers and manufacturers of handset and network equipment from across Asia, Europe, Canada and the United States will be present for the these meetings. For up-to-date information, visit http://www.atis.org/tispanwsp.shtml.

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’ 22 industry committees and its Incubator Solutions Program. www.atis.org

About ETSI

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) plays a major role in global standardization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), including telecommunications and broadcasting. ETSI unites around 700 member companies from nearly 60 countries, including manufacturers, network operators, administrations, service providers, research bodies and users – in fact, all the key players in the ICT arena. For general information about ETSI: www.etsi.org.

About ETSI TISPAN

The Telecoms & Internet converged Services & Protocols for Advanced Networks (TISPAN) committee is the ETSI core competence centre for fixed networks and for migration from switched circuit networks to packet-based networks with an architecture that can serve in both. TISPAN is responsible for all aspects of European standardization for present and future converged networks including the NGN. For more about TISPAN: http://portal.etsi.org/tispan.

About 3GPP

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP™) was established for the preparation and maintenance of a complete set of globally applicable technical specifications for a Third Generation mobile system based on the evolved GSM core networks and the radio access technologies supported by 3GPP partners. 3GPP membership consists of 3 categories – Organizational Partners (standards organisations), Market Representation Partners (industry associations) and Individual Member companies. Several hundred companies from around the world participate as Individual Members. For details about 3GPP and its Members and Partners, please go to www.3gpp.org.

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