What are standards?

There are many definitions of a 'standard'. Very generally, a standard might simply be defined as 'a set of rules for ensuring quality'.

ISO/IEC Guide 2:1996, definition 3.2 defines a standard as:

'A document established by consensus and approved by a recognized body that provides for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context'.

ETSI standards could be described in general as being 'definitions and specifications for products and processes requiring repeated use'. They are certainly a set of rules for ensuring quality.

A fuller definition of a 'standard' from an ETSI perspective would be:

'A technical specification approved by a recognized standardization body for repeated or continuous application, with which compliance is not compulsory and which is one of the following:

  • international standard: a standard adopted by an international standardization organization
  • European standard: a standard adopted by a European standardization body
  • national standard: a standard adopted by a national standardization body and made available to the public'.

Source: Directive 98/34/EC definitions

Technical definition is never straightforward however, and in terms of our deliverables an ETSI Standard or ES in abbreviated form: 'contains normative provisions, approved for publication... by our members'.

Of crucial importance to our members is the quality of the standard itself and we pride ourselves on creating thorough, high quality, robust standards under a self-imposed regime of compromise avoidance.

ETSI standards making priorities include:

  • fully specified scoping
  • consistent use of specific terms
  • accurate referencing
  • contextualizing of abbreviations
  • accuracy and completeness of technical content
  • clear and unambiguous requirements
  • legibility and comprehension.

Two major objectives of ICT standardization are interconnection and interoperability.

ETSI's uncompromising approach facilitates these by ensuring our deliverables are easily interpretable, understandable and unambiguous.

Only this level of attention to detail can produce the truly high quality standards that Industry, Operators and Users now demand to grow their increasingly global markets.