ETSI Introduction

　　 The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is a non-profit telecommunications standardization organization established by the European Commission in 1988 and headquartered in Nice, southern France. The area of standardization of ETSI is mainly in the telecommunications industry, and involves cooperation with other organizations in the field of information and broadcast technology. As a telecommunications standards association recognized by CEN (European Association for Standardization) and CEPT (European Conference of Post and Telecommunications Authorities), ETSI develops recommended standards that are often adopted and enforced by the European Community as the technical basi`s for European regulations.

　　ETSI currently has 457 members from 47 countries, including telecommunications administrations, national standardization organizations, network operators, equipment manufacturers, private network service providers, and user research institutes. ETSI members can be divided into four categories: full members, alternate members, observers and advisors. Full membership and observers are only allowed to organizations within the CEPT member States. Those who voluntarily apply for membership and pay an annual fee to ETSI in proportion to their annual income may become full members with the approval of the plenary. Full members have the right to speak, vote and use ETSI standard technical reports and reference documents. ETSI observers are generally awarded only to representatives of invited telecommunications organizations. An ETSI Alternate Member is a special status for non-European national telecommunications organizations or companies seeking to cooperate with ETSI. To become an alternate member of ETSI, a formal agreement with ETSI is signed and approved by the plenary. Alternate members are free to participate in meetings, have the right to speak but not vote, and enjoy the same documents as full members; The alternate member shall support the ETSI standard as the basis for the world telecommunication standard, adopt the ETSI standard whenever possible and pay an annual fee. The ETSI gives the representatives of the European Community and EFTA (European Free Trade Association) the status of advisers, who have the right to participate in plenary sessions, participate in the work of Standing committees, technical committees and special committees, but do not have the right to vote.

　　ETSI has many characteristics compared to ITU(International Telecommunication Union). First of all, it is very public and open, and no matter the competent authorities, users, operators, and research units can express their opinions equally. In addition, market sensitivity according to the needs of the market and users to develop standards, with standards to define products, guide production. The pertinence and timeliness are also the differences between ETSI and ITU. In order to coordinate countries, ITU often leaves many options when developing standards, so that different countries and regions can choose, but it causes trouble for the unification and interoperability of equipment. ETSI has detailed some indicators for the European market and the world market.

　　ETSI's standard-setting work is open-ended. The topic of the standard is proposed by the members of ETSI through the technical committee, which is approved by the technical assembly and included in the ETSI work plan, and the technical committee undertakes the research work of the standard. The draft standard proposed by the technical committee will be summarized by the Secretariat and sent to the standardization organizations of the member states for comment, and after returning the comments, the summary will be modified and voted on in the member states. An affirmative vote of more than 70% can become an official ETSI standard, otherwise it can become an interim standard or other technical document.