IFAST

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

SID

The SID lets mobile phones that conform to the TIA Cellular or PCS Standard analog, CDMA or TDMA standards recognize when they are in their home system vs. roaming or in another system that can provide them with service.

IFAST inherited the assignment of SID ranges to countries and has continued the allocation of blocks to countries that need more codes or that were never assigned a block (e.g., because the country was not independent when the blocks were first assigned in the 1980s). IFAST considers it the responsibility of national telecom regulators to assign SID codes to individual wireless systems, but IFAST will perform this function when the national regulator is unwilling or unable to do so. IFAST also allocates SID ranges to international carriers, such as international mobile satellite carriers and companies that provide cellular service through base stations on boats.