European Telecommunications Standards Institute

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is an independent, non-profit, standardization organization of the telecommunications industry (equipment makers and network operators) in Europe. ETSI has been successful in standardizing the GSM cell phone system and the TETRA professional mobile radio system.

Significant ETSI standardization bodies are 3GPP (for UMTS networks) or TISPAN (for fixed networks and Internet convergence).

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 699 members from 55 countries 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.