IFAST

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IFAST is an acronym for the International Forum on ANSI-41 Standards Technology. This organization is the authority on the allocation of SID System Identification numbers for wireless communication outside Canada, the United States and territories, and on the assignment of International Roaming MINs, or IRM, for use in cellular mobile devices.

[edit] SID

The SID lets mobile phones that confrom to the TIA Cellular or PCS Standard recognize when they are in their home system vs. roaming.

In North America SIDs are allocated by CIBERNET. Because the coordination between nations that do not use IFAST for allocation can be poor, there is some overlap in allocated SIDs. Wireless operators that use non-IFAST SIDs must find ways to deal with these conflicts by moving to a centrally allocated scheme or by making arrangements with other nations directly.

[edit] IRM

An International Roaming MIN, or IRM, is a MIN with the following format: 0-XXX+6D or 1-XXX+6D. The IRM concept was expanded in March 2004 to include MIN codes with the format XXX-0+6D and XXX-1+6D. They are now also available for assignment by IFAST.

The 4 digit prefix of an IRM is allocated by IFAST that attempts to facilitate international roaming by minimizing conflicts with North American MIN.

The last 6 digits of an IRM are allocated by the carrier.