The North American 3GPP Organizational Partner, ATIS has welcomed over 1800 experts to Chicago, to attend 15 of the 3GPP Working Groups – spanning all three 3GPP Technical Specification areas: Service and System Aspects, Core Network and Terminals and Radio Access Networks.*

The scale of the events of this week has necessitated spreading the meeting rooms across two venues in the city, with TSG SA and CT meetings at the Hilton Palmer House and the TSG RAN groups meetings a few blocks south, at the Hilton Chicago.

The technical focus this week has largely been on the completion of 3GPP Release 18 projects and features. The groups handle thousands of documents, during specification drafting sessions that are preparing the way for the final approval and functional freeze of Release 18 by March 2024 (TSGs #103, Maastricht). The priorities for Release 19 have also been discussed, with firm decisions on what will feature in Rel-19 to be made at the up-coming Plenaries in December 2023 (TSGs #102, Edinburgh).

In the build up to the WG meetings this week, ATIS provided an online tool to help delegates find good accommodation and details about the meeting venues and their surroundings. The success of the meetings website https://3gppmeetings.atis.org/ has allowed ATIS to establish a template for meeting support that will now go forward to future meeting’s planning. The next ATIS hosted gathering of this size will be the 3GPP Working Group Meetings in Orlando, in November 2024.

* Text updated Nov. 20 to correct the number of delegates (previously noted as 1400+). KF