Standards, Specifications and Reports

ETSI is a key player on the international standards scene and publishes more than 2,500 standards every year. These include the standards that enable key global technologies such as GSMTM, 3G, 4G, 5G, DECTTM, and many more ICT standards success stories.

ETSI standards are available for download in PDF free of charge (the Word version is password protected and accessible for a specific target audience only).

ETSI produces specifications, standards, reports and guides, each with its own purpose.

  • European Standard (EN) – Used when the document is intended to meet needs specific to Europe and requires transposition into national standards, or when the drafting of the document is required under a standardization request from the European Commission (EC)/European Free Trade Association (EFTA). An EN is drafted by a Technical Committee and approved by ETSI's European National Standards Organizations.
    • Harmonised Standards
      Harmonised Standards are ENs with a special status. We produce them in response to an EC standardization request. They provide the technical detail necessary to achieve the ‘essential requirements’ of an EC Directive. They are thus key enablers of the European Single Market. We produced and continue to produce numerous Harmonised Standards in support of several EC mandates and policies.
  • European standardization deliverables – Any other technical specification than a European standard, adopted by a European standardization organization for repeated or continuous application and with wich compliance is not compulsory.
  • ETSI Standard (ES) – Used when the document contains technical requirements. An ES is submitted to the whole ETSI membership for approval.
  • ETSI Guide (EG) – Used for guidance to ETSI in general on the handling of specific technical standardization activities. It is submitted to the whole ETSI membership for approval.
  • ETSI Technical Specification (TS) – Used when the document contains technical requirements and it is important that it is available for use quickly. A TS is approved by the Technical Committee that drafted it.
  • ETSI Technical Report (TR) – Used when the document contains explanatory material. A TR is approved by the Technical Committee that drafted it.
  • ETSI Special Report (SR) – Used for various purposes, including to make information publicly available for reference. An SR is approved by the Technical Committee which produced it.
  • ETSI Group Specification (GS) – Provides technical requirements or explanatory material or both. Produced and approved within our Industry Specification Groups (ISGs).
  • ETSI Group Report (GR) – An ETSI deliverable, containing only informative elements, approved for publication by an Industry Specification Group.

Publicly available specifications

Our pdfPublicly Available Specifications (PAS) process enables an ETSI partner to submit one or more of its Publicly Available Specifications for adoption by ETSI. It will then become an ETSI Technical Specification (TS) or ETSI Technical Report (TR). For more information please read about PASs in our Partnerships section.