This web page has been created by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) and its Next Generation Interconnection Interoperability Forum (NGIIF) as a place to allow communications companies and other stakeholders work together on call termination issues.
NGIIF Work on Rural Call Completion
In 2011, ATIS NGIIF began a work program to address call termination issues being encountered by rural telephone companies and their customers, including situations in which: the calling party hears ringing but the called party hears nothing (or there is an unusually long call set-up), the called party’s phone rings, but the party hears dead air when the call is answered; or there is extremely poor quality on answerable calls.
Working with rural carriers and other stakeholders, including state regulators, work was initially directed at identifying the source of the issues that had been raised. Noting that the source of the problems could not be identified from available data, the ATIS NGIIF began an information gathering effort to create potential solutions that could provide more specific assistance for carriers. To facilitate this effort, the ATIS NGIIF:
- invited rural carriers, rural carrier associations, and regulators to attend open meetings/workshops;
- held regular meetings to progress the work with ATIS NGIIF;
- scheduled workshops to addressing potential solutions; and
- met with rural carrier associations to update them on our efforts.
As a result of this effort, the Intercarrier Call Completion/Call Termination Handbook was developed, which is publicly available on a complimentary basis. Additionally, an Intercarrier Troubleshooting Quick Reference Tool is also available to assist in troubleshooting call terminations.
Recent Work
The Intercarrier Call Completion/Call Termination Handbook is a living document that will be updated as needed to provide appropriate guidance on call completion issues. As part of this effort, ATIS NGIIF and NECA collaborated on joint testing with the goal of identifying data that may assist ATIS NGIIF in the updating of the handbook. This testing involved the participation of 10 originating and 127 rural carriers using milliwatt test lines and was successfully completed in June 2014. It has been agreed by NECA and ATIS NGIIF that the testing uncovered no data that warrants updates to the handbook.
If you want to participate in or provide input to ATIS NGIIF efforts on this matter, please contact us.
NGIIF Contact Directories
ATIS NGIIF has also developed a contact directory to provide contact information to the communications industry for reporting or passing on trouble reports to interconnecting companies. This is intended only for use by industry professionals and should not be shared with end users. ATIS has password-protected this resource to avoid misuse of the contact information. Established customer resolution processes should be used by end users to contact their service providers as appropriate. The Service Provider Contact Directory is available via the Contact Directories web page.
Any service provider may request, free-of-charge, access to the directory by completing the Contact Directory Password Request Form and submitting it via email to ngiif-admin@atis.org. A password will generally be issued within two (2) business days of the receipt of the form.
ATIS NGIIF strongly encourages communications companies to provide/update information for the directory. Please complete the attached service provider contact directory (SPCD) form and submit it to ATIS via email at ngiif-admin@atis.org. Information on the SPCD contact directory can be found within the following document: NGIIF Contact Directory Entry Instructions. Any information provided to ATIS will be used only to update the directory and will not be used for any other purpose.