12 Where the work stands, and what a percentage is worth

12.1 What a completion figure is

Every work item in the 3GPP Work Plan has a completion field. It is a number between nothing and 100 per cent, typed by a human being at some point in the past.

Three things follow from that, and every status sentence in this chapter obeys them:

• F1. It is a target's progress, not an outcome. It says how far along somebody judged the work to be against its own plan. It does not say the work succeeded, or that anything was published.

• F2. It is as fresh as its last edit, and no fresher. The row records when it was modified; it does not record whether anything moved since. An item reading 20 per cent may have finished and not been updated AmbientIoT_Ph2-OAM.

• F3. It can disagree with itself. The umbrella item Ambient_IoT_Solutions reads 80 per cent while both parts underneath it, core and performance, read 100. The data does not say which is right Ambient_IoT_Solutions Ambient_IoT_Solutions-Core Ambient_IoT_Solutions-Perf.

12.2 The studies: nine of ten finished

Study	Release	Complete	Finished
FS_Ambient_IoT_RAN FS_Ambient_IoT_RAN	Rel-18	100%	2023-09-08
FS_AmbientIoT, SA1 FS_AmbientIoT	Rel-19	100%	2023-05-28
FS_AmbientIoT, SA2 FS_AmbientIoT	Rel-19	100%	2024-08-30
FS_Ambient_IoT_solutions FS_Ambient_IoT_solutions	Rel-19	100%	2024-12-12
FS_Ambient_IoT_Sec FS_Ambient_IoT_Sec	Rel-19	100%	2024-12-12
FS_AmbientIoT_Ph2_ARC FS_AmbientIoT_Ph2_ARC	Rel-20	100%	2026-03-03
FS_AmbientIoT_Ph2_APP FS_AmbientIoT_Ph2_APP	Rel-20	100%	2026-06-06
FS_AIoT_SEC_Ph2 FS_AIoT_SEC_Ph2	Rel-20	100%	2026-06-06
FS_Ambient_IoT_Outdoor_Active FS_Ambient_IoT_Outdoor_Active	Rel-20	100%	2026-03-03
FS_AmbientIoT_Ph2_CH FS_AmbientIoT_Ph2_CH	Rel-20	0%	target 2026-12-12

Every Rel-19 study is done, and three of the four Rel-20 studies are done as well. The one at zero is the phase 2 charging study, approved only at plenary SP-112 FS_AmbientIoT_Ph2_CH SP-260656.

The investigating, in other words, is essentially over. What remains is building, and one question about how to bill for it.

That is a normal shape for an area at this age. Studies front-load: they all start early, they all finish, and a late one is usually a question somebody noticed after the main design was settled — which is exactly what a phase 2 charging study is FS_AmbientIoT_Ph2_CH.

12.3 Rel-19: essentially finished

Work item	Group	Complete	Finished
AmbientIoT, stage 1 AmbientIoT	SA1	100%	2023-12-12
Ambient_IoT_Solutions-Core Ambient_IoT_Solutions-Core	RAN1	100%	2025-09-09
Ambient_IoT_Solutions-Perf Ambient_IoT_Solutions-Perf	RAN4	100%	2026-03-03
AmbientIoT-ARC AmbientIoT-ARC	SA2	100%	2025-09-09
AmbientIoT-CH AmbientIoT-CH	SA5	100%	2025-06-06
AmbientIoT-CT, CT1 part AmbientIoT-CT	CT1	100%	2025-09-09
AmbientIoT-CT, CT3 part AmbientIoT-CT	CT3	100%	2025-09-09
AmbientIoT-CT, CT4 part AmbientIoT-CT	CT4	100%	2025-09-09
AmbientIoT-SEC AmbientIoT-SEC	SA3	95%	target 2025-09-09
conformance testing Ambient_IoT_Solutions_plus_CT1_SA3-ConTest	RAN5	37%	target 2026-12-11

Two rows deserve care.

SA3's security work reads 95 per cent against a target date that has passed AmbientIoT-SEC. That is not evidence the work failed and not evidence it finished. It is a row somebody has not edited since. The fix, if you need the answer, is the status of TS 33.369 on its own information page TS 33.369.

Conformance testing is the one piece clearly still running. It started 2025-12-12 and reads 37 per cent against a target of 2026-12-11 Ambient_IoT_Solutions_plus_CT1_SA3-ConTest. That fits everything else in this course: RAN5 filed its first document in January 2026 and has attended two meetings RAN5.

12.4 Rel-20 phase 2: running, not finished

Work item	Group	Complete	Target finish
AmbientIoT_Ph2-ARC AmbientIoT_Ph2-ARC	SA2	70%	2026-09-09
AmbientIoT_Ph2-APP AmbientIoT_Ph2-APP	SA6	70%	2026-09-09
Ambient_IoT_Solutions_Ph2-Core Ambient_IoT_Solutions_Ph2-Core	RAN1	40%	2027-03-03
AmbientIoT_Ph2-CT, CT4 part AmbientIoT_Ph2-CT	CT4	30%	2027-03-03
AmbientIoT_Ph2-CT, CT6 part AmbientIoT_Ph2-CT	CT6	30%	2027-03-03
AmbientIoT_Ph2-CT, CT1 part AmbientIoT_Ph2-CT	CT1	20%	2027-03-03
AmbientIoT_Ph2-CT, CT3 part AmbientIoT_Ph2-CT	CT3	20%	2027-03-03
AmbientIoT_Ph2-OAM AmbientIoT_Ph2-OAM	SA5	20%	2027-03-03
Ambient_IoT_Solutions_Ph2-Perf Ambient_IoT_Solutions_Ph2-Perf	RAN4	0%	2027-09-09
AmbientIoT_Ph2-SEC AmbientIoT_Ph2-SEC	SA3	0%	2026-12-12
AmbientIoT_Ph2_APP-CT AmbientIoT_Ph2_APP-CT	CT3	0%	2027-03-03

The order in that table is the order of the process, again: architecture and application layer furthest along, radio behind them, protocols behind that, performance and security last. Phase 2 is doing what phase 1 did, one layer at a time.

12.5 What the paper trail says about the pace

Year	Documents
2022	220 [2]
2023	414 [3]
2024	3384 [4]
2025	4457 [5]
2026, a part year	2090 [6]

Two quiet years while SA1 and RAN studied, then an eightfold jump in 2024 when the architecture, radio, security and protocol groups all arrived at once, then a peak in 2025.

2026 is a part year, and its 2090 documents ^[6] stop at the newest paper in this data, filed 2026-07-30 ^[7].

By release the story is the same. Rel-18 carries 179 documents ^[8], Rel-19 carries 8200 ^[9] and Rel-20 carries 2176 so far ^[10].

Each counts only the rows that carry a release. Some of the area's 10771 documents ^[11] carry no release at all, and some carry no upload date, which is why neither table sums to the total.

12.6 How to state the status of this area honestly

If somebody asks you where Ambient IoT is, the defensible answer has four parts:

• G1. The studying is finished — nine of ten study items complete ^[12] FS_AmbientIoT_Ph2_CH.

• G2. Rel-19 is essentially specified: requirements, architecture, radio, protocols, charging and security all read 95 or 100 per cent ^[1].

• G3. Rel-19 conformance testing is about a third done and still running Ambient_IoT_Solutions_plus_CT1_SA3-ConTest.

• G4. Rel-20 phase 2 is running, with eleven items between 0 and 70 per cent, and no outcome recorded anywhere AmbientIoT_Ph2-ARC.

12.7 Where to read on

Every figure on this page — the nineteen items reading 100 per cent included ^[1] — comes from the 3GPP Work Plan, a file this machine holds a copy of.

Each work item's own description — the SID or WID that defines it — is a separate document on 3gpp.org, and the register carries the address of each one.

For the freshest state of any single item, go to 3gpp.org itself rather than to any copy of the work plan, including this one.

How to search for all of it yourself is How to follow this area yourself.