The ability of companies to compete in global markets largely depends on their capacity to communicate in a cost effective and reliable manner. Telecommunications and more widely Electronic Communications standardization is an important step towards building a harmonized market. The European Commission has set an ambitious pace for achieving a single market. In addition, the members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and other CEPT countries recognize the benefits of harmonized telecommunications.
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is a not for profit organization whose mission is to determine and produce the telecommunications, broadcasting and information technology standards that will be used for decades to come. It is an open forum that unites about 900 members from over 50 countries, representing public administrations, network operators, manufacturers, service providers, and users. Any organization demonstrating an interest in promoting electronic communications standards has the right to represent that interest in ETSI and thus to directly influence the standards making process. ETSI is is officially recognized as a European Standardization Organisation by the European Commission and the EFTA.
ETSI provides Standards for Business. ETSI's approach to standards-making is innovative and dynamic, and it is the ETSI members who fix the standards work programme in function of market needs. Accordingly, ETSI produces voluntary standards - some of these may be referred to by the European Union (EU) and EFTA as the technical base for directives or regulations. The fact that the voluntary standards are requested by those who subsequently implement them means that the standards remain practical rather than abstract.
ETSI promotes the worldwide standardization process and produces standards for global application when ever possible. Its work programme is based on, and coordinated with, the activities of international standardization bodies, mainly the ITU-T and the ITU-R. ETSI also develops standards through partnerships and collaborates with various Fora and Consortia worldwide.
ETSI consists of a General Assembly, a Board, a Technical Organization and a Secretariat. The Technical Organization produces and approves technical standards. It encompasses Partnership Projects (PP), Technical Committees (TCs) and Special Committees. More than 3500 experts are currently working for ETSI in over 200 groups.
The Secretariat of ETSI is located in Sophia Antipolis, in Southern France. It comprises about 100 staff members. In order to promote and accelerate standardization additional experts work on a full-time basis at the ETSI Headquarters. At present, there are about 40 Specialist Task Forces (STFs) with around 100 experts. To date almost 10 000 ETSI deliverables have been published of which more than 3 500 are formal standards.
ETSI
F-06921 Sophia Antipolis, France
Tel: +33 4 92 94 42 00; Fax: +33 4 93 65 47 16
e-mail: infocentre@etsi.org
http://www.etsi.org 