Our global role

As the effects of globalization permeate further and accelerate, ETSI is providing business and industry with efficient solutions for accessing and developing new and established world markets via standardization.

Globally applicable ETSI Standards and Technical Specifications such as GSMTM (2.5 billion mobile connections), DECTTM, TETRA and DVB are prime examples of the role we play in growing international markets.

The world's leading telecom companies are all members of ETSI and they are drawn from 62 countries, meaning our work is present on every major continent.

The perpetual challenge for large and small companies is to provide ever more economic business models, whilst the constant demand of users is to have the 'next best thing'. This leads to a natural convergence of technological solutions.

Industry's needs

Industry's needs are a core part of the ETSI Work Programme and we are at the forefront of innovation in standardization.

ETSI is driving standards work on NGN (Next Generation Networks) and we are at the epicentre of development work on common IMS LTE (Long Term Evolution) and SAE (System Architecture Equipment) through our Technical Committee TISPAN and our partnership with 3GPP, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project.

We recognize the special demands of emerging markets and have responded by securing permanent representation in China (SESEC).

We are also examining the possibility of creating a similar presence in other rapidly-expanding regional economies, following requests from ETSI members and representatives of business & Industry there.

In Latin America, we are building on 5 years of ETSI contributions to the @LIS project, a European co-operation programme aimed at promoting the Information Society and fighting the digital divide. The @METIS project will continue this approach by enriching the Dialogue on Standards with topics such as interoperability and e-government for example.

Our global collaboration includes formal links with:

  • 3GPP - 3rd Generation Partnership Project
  • EMTEL - Emergency telecommunications
  • MESA - Mobility for Emergency & Safety Applications
  • ICANN - Internet policy & structure
  • GSC - Global Standards Collaboration.

International Partnership

At ETSI, we believe international futures are built around international partnerships.To ensure coherence between ETSI's and other produced Standards and exchange documents, and to avoid duplication within standardization activities in general, ETSI has partnership Agreements with several fora, consortia and standard makers' bodies such as:

  • IEC - International Electrotechnical Commission
  • ISO - International Standards Organisation
  • ITU - International Telecommunications Union.

Looking ahead, ETSI remains committed to reinforcing its dialogue and extending its collaboration with partners around the world.
See ETSI partnership portfolio

Interoperability

Interoperability is a crucial factor in market development and the ETSI Centre for Testing & Interoperability provides a set of unique and complimentary resources in this domain, including:

  • Methodologies, techniques & languages for testing
  • Test specification development for new technologies such as WiMAX
  • PlugtestsTM interoperabilty events in various global locations to validate standards, products and prototypes.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

Companies with an international dimension are now obliged to pay far greater attention to IPR due to the increasingly competitive and fast-changing world trade environment.

ETSI's IPR Policy is a world leader in its domain and is accepted as a reference in telecoms and ICT (Information Communication Technologies). 

To find out more about how ETSI can benefit your organization, please visit our dedicated membership web pages or contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .