ATIS is a member company organization that defines standards and operating procedures for the telecommunications industry. Nearly 3,000 experts from 300 communications companies participate in ATIS committees. Committee topics include network interconnection standards, network interoperability, improved data transmission, wireless communications, and Internet telephony. Members of ATIS and committee participants comprise telecommunications service providers, manufacturers, software developers, resellers, enhanced service providers, and providers of operations support.
"In developing the ATIS Document Center, we carefully listened to industry and government leaders and shared their concern for how U.S. and North American telecommunications standards are being perceived and made accessible internationally," says ATIS president and CEO Susan Miller. "There is a clear need to demonstrate how the entire North American telecommunications industry--carriers, manufacturers, resellers, service providers, and software manufacturers working together under the ATIS umbrella--are successfully devising mutually acceptable standards and requirements that are timely, market driven, and ready for global acceptance," she says.
The ATIS Document Center is accessible through the ATIS website at www.atis.org. The online center offers telecommunications standards, technical reports, guidelines, and documents. Users may order documents 24 hours a day in electronic download, CD-ROM, 1.44-Mbyte diskette, or paper format. Internet Explorer 5 or Netscape 4 are necessary to download documents directly from the site. Fees vary depending on the specific document and formats available, but many documents feature an option for one free download. The center also offers a customer call center and toll-free number (800-387-2199) for the purchase of documents over the phone.
Documents from the following committees are now available:
- Standards Committee T1
- Carrier Liaison Committee
- Industry Numbering Committee
- Network Interconnection/Interoperability Forum
- Ordering and Billing Forum
- Committee O5 - Wood Poles
- Internetwork Interoperability Test Coordination Committee
- Network Reliability Steering Committee
- Protection Engineers Group
- Network and Services Integration Forum
- Telecommunications Industry Forum
- Data-Aware Transport Activity
The documents published by the committees cover a wide spectrum of the telecommunications industry, including topics on fiber optics and optical networking. For example, browsing the documents produced by the Network and Services Integration Forum turns up such titles as "Synchronous Optical Network--Basic Description Including Multiplex Structure, Rates and Formats," "Network to Customer Installation Interfaces--Synchronous Optical Network Physical Media Dependent Specification: Single-Mode Fiber," and "ATM Data-Aware Transport Network Interface Interoperability Specification."
As part of the ATIS Document Center's services, licensing arrangements are also offered to telecommunications companies seeking access to editable versions of selected ATIS documents for twelve months or more. To inquire about licensing, call 202-434-8850 or email [email protected].