Welcome to the world of ETSI

About ETSI

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) produces globally-applicable

standards for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), including fixed, mobile,
radio, converged, broadcast and internet technologies.

We are officially recognized by the European Union as a European Standards Organization. The
high quality of our work and our open approach to standardization has helped us evolve into a
European roots - global branches operation with a solid reputation for technical excellence.

ETSI is a not-for-profit organization with more than 700 ETSI member organizations drawn from
62 countries across 5 continents world-wide.

In this section you will find a more detailed description of ETSI, information on how we work,
how we are structured, our role and useful information for visiting ETSI.

We produce globally applicable standards for Information & Communications Technologies including
fixed, mobile, radio, broadcast, internet, aeronautical and other areas.

ETSI is recognised as an official European Standards Organisation by the European Union, enabling
valuable access to European markets.

High quality and low time-to-market are our constant aims and we continually strive to collaborate
with research bodies. We are active in vital complementary areas such as interoperability and we offer
event services related to standardisation including forum hosting.

Our international reputation is built on openness, discussion, consensus and direct input from our
members.

What are standards?

There are many definitions of a 'standard'. Very generally, a standard might simply be defined as
'a set of rules for ensuring quality'.

ISO/IEC Guide 2:1996, definition 3.2 defines a standard as:

'A document established by consensus and approved by a recognized body that provides for
common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results,
aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context'.

ETSI standards could be described in general as being 'definitions and specifications for products
and processes requiring repeated use'. They are certainly a set of rules for ensuring quality.

A fuller definition of a 'standard' from an ETSI perspective would be:

'A technical specification approved by a recognized standardization body for repeated or

continuous application, with which compliance is not compulsory and which is one of the
following:
  international standard: a standard adopted by an international standardization
organization
 European standard: a standard adopted by a European standardization body
 national standard: a standard adopted by a national standardization body and made
available to the public'.

Source: Directive 98/34/EC definitions

Technical definition is never straightforward however, and in terms of our deliverables an ETSI
Standard or ES in abbreviated form: 'contains normative provisions, approved for publication...
by our members'.

Of crucial importance to our members is the quality of the standard itself and we pride ourselves
on creating thorough, high quality, robust standards under a self-imposed regime of compromise
avoidance.

ETSI standards making priorities include:

 fully specified scoping

 consistent use of specific terms
 accurate referencing
 contextualizing of abbreviations
 accuracy and completeness of technical content
 clear and unambiguous requirements
 legibility and comprehension.

Two major objectives of ICT standardization are interconnection and interoperability.

ETSI's uncompromising approach facilitates these by ensuring our deliverables are easily
interpretable, understandable and unambiguous.

Only this level of attention to detail can produce the truly high quality standards that Industry,
Operators and Users now demand to grow their increasingly global markets.

Why do we need standards?

Standards can be found throughout our daily lives but why do we need them?

Rather than asking why we need standards, we might usefully ask ourselves what the world
would be like without standards.

Products might not work as expected. They may be of inferior quality and incompatible with
other equipment, in fact they may not even connect with them, and in extreme cases; non-
standardized products may even be dangerous.

Standardized products and services are valuable User 'confidence builders', being perceived as:

 safe
 healthy
 secure
 high quality
 flexible
As a result, standardized goods and services are widely accepted, commonly trusted and highly
valued.

Standards provide the foundation for many of the innovative communication features and
options we have come to take for granted, and they contribute to the enhancement of our daily
lives - often invisibly.

We need look no further for evidence than the GSM™ standard which facilitates mobile
communication the world over between (for example):

 friends and relations

 hospitals
 business
 schools
 industry
 emergency services
 airports
 governments

ICT standards are vital for efficient manufacturing:

 contribute to better regulation

 enable multi-market access
 create active markets
 encourage innovation
 improve communication

Standardization brings important benefits to business including a solid foundation upon which to
develop new technologies and an opportunity to share and enhance existing practices.

Standardization also plays a pivotal role in assisting Governments, Administrations, Regulators

and the legal profession as legislation, regulation and policy initiatives are all supported by
standardization.

Many of the technologies that ETSI standardises are introduced in a series of leaflets which are
accessible below.

Greater detail of ETSI's work in each technology can be found in the specific technology pages.

 Aeronautical standards
 ATM VoIP Plugtests events
 Broadcast Standards
 Digital Mobile Radio
 Digital Private Mobile Radio
 Digital Private Mobile Radio (Dutch)
 Energy Efficiency
 Enhancing the User Experience
 Ground Penetrating Radar and Wall Probing Radar
 GSM for railways (GSM-R)
 Harmonized Standards for Air Traffic Management
 Identity and access management for Networks and Services
 IMS Network Testing
  Intelligent Transport Systems
 IPTV Standards
 Machine to Machine Communications
 Media Content Distribution
 Methods for Testing and Specification
 Open Radio Interface
 Quantum Key Distribution
 Radio Frequency Spectrum
 Reconfigurable Radio System
 Satellite Earth Stations
 Single European Sky
 The CSA3 algorithm
 The Global Testing Language (TTCN3)
 TISPAN IPTV Standards

European Telecommunications Standards Institute

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is an independent, non-profit,

standardization organization in the telecommunications industry (equipment makers and
network operators) in Europe, with worldwide projection. ETSI has been successful in
standardizing GSM cell phone system, TETRA professional mobile radio system, and Short
Range Device requirements including LPD radio.

Significant ETSI standardisation bodies include TISPAN (for fixed networks and Internet
convergence) and M2M (for machine-to-machine communications). ETSI inspired the
creation of, and is a partner in, 3GPP.

ETSI was created by CEPT in 1988 and is officially recognized by the European Commission
and the EFTA secretariat. Based in Sophia Antipolis (France), ETSI is officially responsible
for standardization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) within Europe.
These technologies include telecommunications, broadcasting and related areas such as
intelligent transportation and medical electronics. ETSI has 740 members from 62
countries/provinces inside and outside Europe, including manufacturers, network operators,
administrations, service providers, research bodies and users — in fact, all the key players in the
ICT arena. A list of current members can be found here.

In 2010, ETSI's budget exceeded €22 million, with contributions coming from members,
commercial activities like sale of documents, plug-tests and fora hosting (i.e. the hosting of
forums[1]), contract work and partner funding. [2]About 40% goes towards operating expenses and
the remaining 60% towards work programs including competency centres and special projects.

ETSI is a founding partner organization of the Global Standards Collaboration initiative.

ETSI was criticised for the preemptive inclusion of wiretapping capabilities in their
telecommunication standards, encouraging governments to pass their wiretapping laws
accordingly.[citation needed] (see Lawful Interception)
Membership

Current full members of ETSI are: the EU member states, Andorra, Iceland, Norway,
Switzerland, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, Ukraine, Turkey, Georgia.[3]

Current associate members of ETSI are: Australia, Canada, USA, Brazil, South Africa, Lesotho,
Egypt, Israel, Yemen, Qatar, UAE, Iran, Uzbekistan, PRChina (together with separate
memberships for its special administrative regions: Hong Kong, Macao), India, South
Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia.[3]

Current observers are: Russia.[3]

ETSI deliverable types

 European Standard, telecommunications series (EN) - Used when the document is intended to
meet needs specific to Europe and requires transposition into national standards, or when the
drafting of the document is required under an EC/EFTA mandate.
 ETSI Standard (ES) - Used when the document contains normative requirements and it is
necessary to submit the document to the whole ETSI membership for approval.
 ETSI Guide (EG) - Used when the document contains guidance on handling of technical
standardization activities, it is submitted to the whole ETSI membership for approval.
 Special Report (SR) - Used for various purposes, including giving public availability to
information not produced within a technical committee. ETSI SRs are also used for 'virtual'
documents, e.g. documents that are dynamically generated by a query to a database via the
web. An SR is published by the technical committee in which it was produced.
 ETSI Technical Specification (TS) - Used when the document contains normative requirements
and when short time-to-market, validation and maintenance are essential, it is approved by the
technical committee that drafted it.
 ETSI Technical Report (TR) - Used when the document contains mainly informative elements, it
is approved by the technical committee that drafted it.
 ETSI Group Specification (GS) - Used by Industry Specification Groups according to the decision
making procedures defined in the group's Terms of Reference. This deliverable type is approved
and adopted by the Industry Specification Group that drafted it.