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Accelerated Solutions and Standards Advancing Industry Priorities Fall 2025

ATIS Committees and Forums address issues critical to driving ICT industry transformation:

The Emergency Services Interconnection Forum
ESIF brings together industry, government, standards, and public safety organizations to develop Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) and location accuracy requirements and solutions. It provides an open forum to identify and resolve technical and operational issues related to interconnecting emergency services networks with other networks (e.g., wireline, cable, satellite, Internet).

Industry Numbering Committee
As the ICT industry’s only open forum for numbering issues, INC recently completed the Large-Scale Rate Center Consolidation (LSRCC) Reference Document.

Rate centers — geographic points used in telecom to define “local” vs. “long-distance” calls, number assignment, and carrier charges — are under review as technologies such as VoIP, mobile, and number portability change calling patterns. Consolidating rate centers could simplify intercarrier cost structures, reduce inefficiencies, and minimize regulatory overhead. This new ATIS resource responds to high industry demand.

A webinar, Rate Center Consolidation: What You Need to Know Now, was held on October 15 to provide practical insights for regulators, service providers, and vendors.

IP-NNI Task Force
The IP-NNI Task Force works to identify a baseline set of features common to all IP-NNI implementations for voice service. As part of a multi-phase effort with the SIP Forum, the Task Force (TF) authored and ratified the SHAKEN (Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information using toKENs) specifications, a major industry tool in the fight against unwanted robocalling. It is now refining these standards to more effectively mitigate unwanted calls, most recently publishing:

  • ATIS-1000101, SMS Unwanted Message Mitigation Landscape
  • ATIS-1000085.v003, SHAKEN Support of “div” PASSporT Token
  • ATIS-1000092.v002, SHAKEN Delegate Certificates
  • ATIS-1000094.v002, SHAKEN Calling Name and RCD Handling Procedures

Ahead of the Fall 2025 SIPNOC Conference, the Committee approved ATIS-100080.v006, SHAKEN Governance Model and Certificate Management, for publication. It also received a proposal to establish a new subgroup focused on security and authentication in text messaging, following the issues presented in ATIS-1000101 1000101 SMS Unwanted Message Mitigation Landscape. This proposal is under consideration.

The TF’s work to update the IP-NNI Profile continues, incorporating changes from 3GPP Rel-18 on network topology, resiliency, and security, among other areas. IP-NNI is also drafting a technical report on Operational and Management Practices for the SHAKEN Policy Administrator’s Certification Authority.

Next Generation Interconnection Interoperability Forum
NGIIF develops operational procedures for next-generation interconnection and interoperability, covering network architecture, disaster preparedness, installation, management, reliability, routing, security, and testing. The Committee has recently updated:

  • ATIS-0300037, NGIIF Intercompany Responsibilities in the Telecommunications Industry
  • ATIS-0300046, Recommended Notification Procedures to Industry for Changes in Network Routing Architecture

Network Reliability Steering Committee
NRSC is home to a key set of industry advisors on the health and reliability of the nation’s communications networks and is actively involved in public policy input on leading issues in this area. Among its many accomplishments, the committee is:

  • Accessing outage reporting strategies most notably at its plenary meeting held in September in Frisco, Texas:
  • Progressing regulatory issues, including:
      • Filing combined reply comments with ESIF on NG911 FNPRM (FCC-25-21) on Sept 17, linked here.
  • Advancing several critical documents on outage reporting to 988 stakeholders for feedback:
      • Technical Report: Outage Reporting Structure and Potential Types of 988 Outages, discusses how outage reporting works.
      • 988 Outage Notification Template is an industry resource containing standard messages that can be sent on the type of outage occurring.
      •  Target publication for these documents is EOY 2025.

Open RAN Committee
To advance the industry toward more intelligent, open, virtualized, and global standards-compliant mobile networks, ATIS’ ORC is actively engaged in transposing O-RAN ALLIANCE specifications into ATIS standards. This work underscores ATIS’ commitment to developing innovative mobile network standards that leverage the latest technical and architectural advancements. ATIS members from both industry and government strongly support Open RAN as a key enabler of a trusted supplier ecosystem that can deliver capable and cost-effective mobile network platforms.

Packet Technologies and Systems Committee Non-IP Call Authentication Task Force

Call authentication is an evolving ICT industry challenge, requiring continuous refinement of existing standards to address new issues. ATIS’ PTSC NIPCA TF leads industry efforts to address TDM call authentication. Most recently, it has:

  • Updated two foundational standards, now in letter ballot review:
    • ATIS-1000106.v002, Viability of Non-IP Call Authentication Standards
    • ATIS-1000097.v004, Alternatives for Call Authentication for Non-IP Traffic
  • Begun work on a new standard for STI-CPS Discovery (publication expected by EOY 2025):
    • Draft ATIS-1000107, SHAKEN: STI-CPS Discovery for Out-of-Band PASSporT Transmission Involving TDM Networks

The Synchronization Committee
At the direction of the ATIS Board of Directors, SYNC has recently completed work to develop best practices for resilient timing plans for critical infrastructure operators — reducing or eliminating reliance on GPS as a primary time and frequency source. (Learn more at ATIS: SYNC Issue 0015, Resilient timing plans for critical infrastructure operators).

In response to the FCC Notice of Inquiry on promoting alternative Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) solutions, SYNC produced (ATIS-0900006) the Technical Report on Resilient Timing Architecture for 5G Communications Networks. It addresses:

  • GPS vulnerabilities affecting telecom infrastructure
  • Resilient timing architecture options for 5G networks
  • Technical specifications for Enhanced Primary Reference Time Clocks (ePRTC)
  • Recommendations for autonomous time-scale systems for long-term outage protection
  • High Accuracy Time Transfer (HA-TT) implementation strategies

The report reflects the collaborative work of industry subject matter experts and directly supports the FCC’s inquiry into PNT alternatives through a “system of systems” approach.

Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee
WTSC is responsible for requirements, architecture, mobile device behavior, and more for Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs), as well as issues related to 9-1-1 emergency location accuracy. Recently published:

  • ATIS-0700052, Civic and Geodetic Location Conveyance in Support of Emergency Calling
  • ATIS-0700036.v004, Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) 3.0 Mobile Device Behavior (MDB) Specification

In other work, the WTSC Wireless Emergency Alerts Subcommittee also applauds FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) for activating the new Missing and Endangered Persons (MEP) alert code. In comments filed in response to the Emergency Alert System MEP NPRM, WTSC’s WEA Subcommittee provided input on the technical impacts to the WEA system.

WTSC WEA has also published several standards addressing alert codes:

  • ATIS-0700037.v003, WEA 3.0 Federal Alert Gateway to CMSP Gateway Interface Specification
  • ATIS-0700036, WEA 3.0 Mobile Device Behavior (MDB)
  • ATIS-0700049, WEA 3.0 Practical Hints for Alert Originators

Explore the work of all of the ATIS Committees and Forums at: https://www.atis.org/committees-forums/