European Telecommunications Standards Institute Information & European Telecommunications Standards Institute Links at HealthHaven.com

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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 the GSM cell phone system and the TETRA professional mobile radio system.

Significant ETSI standardisation bodies include TISPAN (for fixed networks and Internet convergence). 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 2005, ETSI budget exceeded 20 million Euros, with contributions coming from members, commercial activities like sale of documents, plug-tests and fora hosting, contract work and partner funding. About 40% goes towards operating expenses and the remaining 60% towards work programs including competency centers 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 wirtapping laws accordingly. (see Lawful Interception)

[edit] 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.