i3 Forum Issues “Voice Over IPX,” a Technical and Commercial Specifications Report
Paris, France – November 3, 2010 – The i3 Forum, which is comprised of more than 37 telecommunication
providers representing a combined retail base in excess of 1.5 billion customers in over 100 countries,
announced the release of the official document outlining the technical and commercial specifications for Voice
over IPX. Using the GSMA IPX architecture as a baseline, “Voice Over IPX” contains the implementation
specifications for Voice service within the framework of IP Packet Exchange (IPX). The paper is available on
www.i3forum.org.
“This document is a key contribution to the industry by the i3 Forum,” said Philippe Millet, Chairman, i3 Forum.
“Such widely agreed upon guidelines were not available until now. It will allow carriers who wish to do so to
implement voice services in an IPX environment. This is one of the many ways to move towards an all-IP
world, a goal of the i3 Forum.”
IPX is a multiservice, converged, global interconnection model designed by the GSMA to carry existing
services as well as next generation services. It offers the benefits of IP, while adding controlled Quality of
Service (QoS), security, cascading session-based billing and multilateral interconnection possibilities.
This comprehensive document provides a set of specifications to achieve the basic requirements for areas
such as: IP routing, signaling, media, security, quality of service control and service routing. Based on the June 2010 version of the GSMA IPX requirements, “Voice over IPX” also highlights the business perspective on the Multilateral Hubbing connectivity mode.
“Industry bodies such as the i3 Forum and GSMA have a pivotal role to play in accelerating the industry-wide
transition to IP,” added Millet. “The i3 Forum is committed to achieving this vision through collaboration and will continue to meet with other industry organizations until an all-IP world is realized.”
The i3 Forum’s Voice over IPX specifications complement existing specifications for Voice over Public IP and
Voice over Private IP. While the i3 Forum specs differ from current GSMA IPX requirements, they try to
address the business requirements of MNOs. There have been some minor revisions and clarifications to the
GSMA IPX requirements as a result of a joint analysis and study between GSMA work groups and i3Forum
carriers over the past 18 months and an ongoing dialogue is being continued with the joint aim of moving the
industry to IP.
With a pragmatic and open approach, the i3 Forum’s efforts are focused around the practical challenges of
evolving to IP. The i3 Forum aims to encourage and accelerate an industry-wide transition to IP-based
interconnections for all voice services to enable efficiencies and new IP-based offerings.
About the i3 Forum
The i3 Forum brings together the communications expertise of more than 37 telecommunication providers,
representing a combined retail base of over 1.5 billion customers across more than 100 countries.
The goal of the i3 Forum is to develop collaborative recommendations for an industry-wide transition of voice
and related services to Internet Protocol (IP). The forum’s unified effort to expedite global IP-based
voice implementation supports widespread access to innovative and high-quality IP-based services and
applications.