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

ATIS Completes Next-Generation E911 Interface Standard

October 25, 2005, Las Vegas – TELECOM ’05 – ATIS today announced the publication of the Emergency Services Messaging Interface (ESMI) (ATIS.PP.0500002.200X), which defines the transfer of emergency services information in next-generation networks (NGN).

The ESMI will incrementally replace the existing data retrieval infrastructure with a next generation network that will interoperate with Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) and other conforming emergency service entities. It will co-exist and interoperate with existing legacy services to ensure the preservation of existing services and the safety of citizens.

In existing Emergency Services Networks, the transfer of Automatic Location Identification (ALI), such as fixed addresses for wireline calls or GPS coordinates from wireless devices, to a PSAP occurs on limited point-to-point circuits via modems. ESMI provides a standard for delivering information from the ALI to the PSAP using XML data packets over a multi-point IP network.

“Technological advances have changed the landscape for telecommunications, introducing new applications that are stressing the existing emergency services networks while at the same time providing the opportunity and tools to improve the system,” said Susan Miller, president and CEO of ATIS. “By moving to a multi-point IP network and updating the data to XML syntax, the opportunity for service improvements is increased exponentially. This creates the foundation for building next-gen 911 services.”

Migrating to the ESMI protocol provides the delivery envelope that will enable advanced services such as video, graphics and images as part of next-generation emergency networks and has the potential to expand service applications that might include medical service providers, fire stations, poison assistance centers, police, hazardous material response, coast guard, situation command centers and others, in addition to the PSAP. Examples of potential services that could be triggered with a 911 call could include transmittal of information on known HAZMAT at an industrial site or activate public or private video camera systems to provide images of the incident site.

The ESMI was prepared by the ATIS Emergency Services Interoperability Forum (ESIF), which is co-convened by ATIS and NENA. It recently finished the public review of the American National Standards Institute and has been accepted as an American National Standard for Trial Use. It is available in the ATIS Document Center at http://www.atis.org/doccenter.shtml.

ESIF continues its work on the Emergency Information Services Interface (EISI) Implemented with Web Services, which will define additional protocols for the transfer of data within Emergency Services Networks using standard Internet-based protocols such as HTTP, SMTP and FTP. It is expected to complete the final public review period and be published as an American National Standard for Trial Use in the Q1 2006.

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’ 23 industry committees and Incubator Solutions Program. www.atis.org

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