Our history

Some landmark events...

• 2009: Publication of ETSI book 'ICT Shaping the World'
• 2008: ETSI's 20th Anniversary
• 2008: Introduction of ISGs
• 2008: Launch of Interopolis
• 2006: election of Walter Weigel, Director General
• 2006: Smart Cards - decision taken to use USB Inter Chip technology as the basis for high speed protocol
• 2006: 60 million DECT^TM terminals were sold throughout the world. Work starts on New Generation DECT^TM(Wideband voice and IMS compatibility)
• 2006: ETSI's Lawful Interception handover standard deployed in Europe, Australia & USA
• 2005: the start of a Membership revival after the 2001 telecoms 'bust'. First increase in Membership since 2001 (489)
• 2005: ETSI BRAN committee and the ETSI PTCC provide expertise in the creation of test specifications for WiMAX
• 2005: ETSI TISPAN committee completes Release 1 of the ETSI NGN Standard - 70 deliverables
• 2004: Release 6 of the 3GPP^TMspecifications is frozen. Over 530 new specifications produced in the year...IMS phase2, Lawful Interception, WLAN interworking, MMBroadcast, PoC, DRM, Presence...
• 2004 ETSI TISPAN committee starts work on Release 1 of the ETSI NGN Standard
• 2003: ETSI signed the @LIS contract with the European Commission to provide a 'dialogue for standards' in Latin America.
• 2003: contract with OMA for Fora-hosting services signed, ETSI to provide a technical secretariat and electronic working platforms for the Alliance.
• 2002: 4.75 million euro invested by ETSI Members in Funded Projects and Specialist Task Forces (STF), to speed up the production of urgent standards.
• 2002: all ETSI rooms fitted with 11Mbit/s WLAN access points
• 2002: ETSI hosts an Emergency Telecommunications (EMTEL) Workshop, leading to the creation of ETSI EMTEL Special Committee
• 2002: ETSI publishes 2400 deliverables - EN's, TS's, TR's, etc.
• 2001: election of Jorgen Friis, Deputy Director General
• 2001: ETSI hosts 321 meetings with 7200 participants
• 2001: a difficult year for Telecoms, Stock Market value of telecoms operators and manufacturers becoming half of their 2000 peak (Source FT Sept 2001)
• 2000: eEurope - An information society for all, launched by the European Union with 12.5 million euro allocated to ETSI for Standardization work.
• 2000: Project MESA created to define requirements for mobile broadband systems for emergency services
• 2000: ETSI sets up a 2 person team to support 'fora hosting', the first customer is the Location Interoperability Forum
• 2000: 3GPP^TMproduces 300 specifications in its first year
• Unit of contribution reduced to 5000 ECU by 2000
• 1999: 400 reflector lists in ETSI email list server with 35,000 subscribers
• 1999: the Powerline Telecommunications Project created in ETSI
• 1999: ETSI creates the Mobile Competence Centre to support the 3GPP^TM- A model for Radio, Fixed and Protocols & testing Centres later on
• 1999: The ETSI BAKE-OFF service (later to become Plugtests™) is created
• 1999: ETSI makes all standards freely available on the web. Paper sales plummet, downloads rocket to 1500 per day
• 1998: ETSI technical committee TIPHON^TM(Telecommunications and Internet Protocol Harmonization Over Networks) makes available at no charge all committee documents and standards drafts on the ETSI server
• 1998: 208 reflector lists in ETSI email list server with 8000 subscribers
• 1998: UMTS^TMradio access technology chosen
• 1997: First TETRA networks deployed (by 2006 - 1000 contracts awarded and deployed in over 88 countries)
• 1997: GSM Phase 2+ implementation. Common specifications agreement with ANSI T1P1, GSM North America
• 1997: ETSI starts to create ENs (European Norms), replacing the European Telecommunications Standards (ETSs).
• 1997: ETSI creates Project EASI - European ATM Services Interoperability
• 1997: ETSI creates TIPHON^TMCommittee to deliver VoIP interoperability with telecommunications networks
• 1997: total of 7 million sheets of paper used at ETSI
• 1996: 1500 deliverables (60 000 pages) on one CD-ROM - 'The ETSI Documentation Service' April 1996: election of Ms. Bridget P. Cosgrave, Deputy Director General
• 1995: the GSM Phase 2 specifications were 'frozen'. GSM Phase 2 specifications published as either European Telecommunication Standards (ETS) or ETSI Technical Reports (ETR)
• 1994: total of 18 million sheets of paper used at ETSI
• 1992: GA14 decide to create PEX - Permanent Experts to assist the Technical Committees
• 1992: TR 010 published - listed all the ISDN services to be implemented in the Euro-ISDN.
• 1991: first GSM system operational. TC-GSM name changes to TC-SMG (Special Mobile Group) to avoid confusion with the acronym of the system itself; Global System for Mobile communications (GSM)
• 1991: Extension of the present headquarters
• 1991: Work on TETRA starts, Consensus reached on TDMA technology with 4 timeslots in 25 kHz bandwidth.
• 1990: the GSM Phase 1 specifications were 'frozen'. GSM Phase 1 comprise of 130 recommendations of which more than 30 became Interim European Telecommunication Standards (I-ETS).
• July 1990: Election of Mr. Karl-Heinz Rosenbrock, Director General
• 1989: ETSI creates ISM Committee (ISDN Standard Management).
• 1989: The GSM committee transferred from CEPT to ETSI and became ETSI TC-GSM and the Permanent Nucleus became Project Team 12 (PT 12), which moved to ETSI in 1991.
• July 1989: Move to the present headquarters
• Summer 1988: Secretariat starts operations
• July 1988: Election of Mr. F. Ask as Deputy Director General
• July 1988: Installation of the first offices in Sophia Antipolis
• Election of Pr D. Gagliardi, Director General
• January 1988: creation of ETSI
• 1987: GSM Memorandum of Understanding signed
• 1986: the GSM Permanent Nucleus of experts created and located in Paris
• 1982: Formation of the Groupe Special Mobile (GSM) committee within Conference Europeenne des Postes et Telecommunications (CEPT) and Chaired by Tomas Haug