For over 15 years, the i3Forum has been at the forefront of the international telecommunications industry, working with thought leaders and government bodies to help navigate multiple challenges and opportunities through collaboration.
The international communications industry is on the cusp of a deep, fundamental evolution. At the request of its members, the i3Forum is transforming its mission and vision to take the lead in enabling a successful transition for all stakeholders, building on many years of impactful cooperation to continue its success for the future.
- OUR DEBUT
The i3Forum was announced in May 2008, during the first keynote speech of the first inaugural ITW, in Washington D.C. - WHAT’S IN A NAME
“i3” stands for International IP Interconnections – three “i”s – i3. The name was coined by Arturo Danesi, who represented Telecom Italia Sparkle, one of the founding carriers. - THE EARLY YEARS
The i3Forum originally functioned as an informal working group, incorporating as a non-profit in 2016 as a first step towards building a stronger voice for the Industry. - OUR ORIGINAL MISSION
The i3Forum’s original mission was to accelerate the transition of international voice from TDM to IP – to make sure the international carriers remained relevant and allow them to quickly deploy new strategies leveraging the new technology. - COLLABORATING FOR CHANGE
As soon as 2012, having demonstrated that collaboration works, the i3Forum started looking into additional challenges that the industry faced that none of the stakeholders could address on their own, such as the fight against fraud, new technologies, and market knowledge. - STRENGTH IN MEMBERSHIP
i3Forum’s success is measured by its impact. Since i3forum has no staff, what we achieve is through the efforts of our 26 members — the very people who need to find solutions. So what we come up with is actionable, realistic, and impactful. - EXPANDING OUR REACH
The i3Forum model of agility, relevance, and impact has allowed us to expand our contribution from a targeted mission for the voice industry to today’s initiatives and solutions that focus on challenges facing voice, messaging, and CpaaS players, engaging key ecosystem actors such as National Regulatory Authorities. - CROSS-INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS
The i3Forum has always been a collaborative organization — sharing our views and educating other bodies on our challenges. We have built strong partnerships with organizations such as the GLF, the GSMA, and the GSC, and are constantly engaging with more organizations. - FIGHTING VOICE FRAUD
The work of our Fight Voice Fraud has become the de facto standard for the international voice industry. Our work powers the “Joint Code of Conduct” that is enabled and enforced by the GLF — an excellent example of collaboration leading to real, measurable progress in the industry. - IMPROVING NUMBERING PLAN KNOWLEDGE
Chronic imperfect knowledge of the Global Numbering Plan is one of the major root causes for many issues that plague our industry. The i3Forum has launched a free Numbering Plan community that allows experts globally to share information and discuss Numbering Plan related issues, improving collective knowledge. - PREVENTING CLI SPOOFING
The i3Forum Technology working group is due to release a seminal paper on our concept for a “CLI Safe Zone”, a framework for an global architecture that would help limit CLI spoofing and enable interworking between various national CLI attestation solutions. - PROVIDING INSIGHTS ON THE VOICE MARKET
Identifying the need for a common platform to provide an objective view of the voice market, i3Forum members created Insights in partnership with Telegeography. Participating international carriers upload granular data about their voice traffic on a monthly basis, which is then anonymized and aggregated — providing the only benchmarking and trending tool based on actual data. - INSIGHTS FOR MESSAGING
Building on the success on Insights for Voice, the i3Forum is working with International carriers and aggregators to develop a similar traffic reporting tool for messaging: a platform that allows participants to analyze anonymized, aggregated data. This will help identify abnormal traffic patterns and fraudulent behavior in the market. - A CODE OF CONDUCT TO FIGHT MESSAGING FRAUD
As the International Voice and Messaging worlds get closer and closer, our members decided that the i3Forum should develop a de facto industry standard that is actionable and enforceable to fight against messaging fraud. Our working group will soon publish a practical, operational Code of Conduct. Stay tuned. - RESTORING TRUST
The huge (and growing) issue of unwanted / illegal communications is deeply damaging public trust in voice and messaging communications. The uncoordinated approach from multiple authorities leaves our ecosystem to face an increasing number of disjointed regulatory requirements. Recognizing the challenge, the i3Forum has taken the lead with an ecosystem-wide initiative to Restore Public Trust in International Communications, to unify the entire international ecosystem and engage globally with National Regulatory Authorities.