Regional Standards

North America, Europe, and Japan play a major role in the ITU-T and also set their own regional standards based on the ITU-T recommendations.

ETSI

ETSI is a nonprofit organization responsible for setting standards for telecommunications systems in Europe. ETSI was set up by the CEC (Commission of the European Communities). ETSI is an open forum that unites 728 members from 51 countries, representing administrations, network operators, manufacturers, service providers, and users. Any European organization proving an interest in promoting European telecommunications standards has the right to represent that interest in ETSI and, thus, to directly influence the standards-making process.

The purpose of ETSI was to create something in between the international level and the national level for pan-European use so that EU member countries could have cross-border signaling that was not as restricted as that found on the international level.

3rd Generation Partnership Project

When the ITU solicited solutions to meet the requirements laid down for IMT-2000 (3G cellular), various standards groups proposed varying technologies. ETSI proposed a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) solution using FDD. Japan proposed a WCDMA solution using both TDD and FDD. The Koreans proposed two types of CDMA solutions—one similar to the ETSI solution and one more in line with the North American solution (CDMA 2000).

Instead of having different regions working alone, it was decided that it would be better to pool resources. To this end, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) was created to work on WCDMA, and 3GPP2 was formed to work on CDMA-2000.

3GPP is a collaboration agreement that was established in December 1998. It brings together a number of telecommunications standards bodies called organization partners. The current organization partners are Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB—Japan), China Wireless Telecommunication Standards group (CWTS—China), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI—Europe), Committee T1 (North America), Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA—Korea), and Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC—Japan). The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA—North America) is an observer to 3GPP.

The scope of 3GPP was subsequently amended to include the maintenance and development of the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), and Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE). Previously, it focused only on developing standards for third-generation mobile systems. The GSM standard has been transferred to 3GPP from ETSI, although the vast majority of individual member organizations in 3GPP come from the ETSI membership list.

3GPP's third-generation systems operate in at least the five regions of the partner standards bodies—this is a big improvement over the GSM situation, which is incompatible with the Japanese second-generation system and, in terms of frequency band employed, even the GSM implementations in the U.S. The advantages of this multiregional approach are no doubt why 3GPP was formed.

3rd Generation Partnership Project 2

3GPP2 is to CDMA-2000 what 3GPP is to W-CDMA. Furthermore, 3GPP2 was created in the image of 3GPP. They develop 3G standards for carriers that currently have CDMA systems (such as IS-95 or TIA/EIA-95) installed. This group works closely with TIA/EIA TR-45.5, which originally was responsible for CDMA standards, as well as other TR-45 subcommittees—TR-45.2 (network), TR-45.4 ("A" interface), and TR-45.6 (packet data).

ETSI is not involved in any way with 3GPP2, and it does not publish the output of 3GPP2. Although 3GPP and 3GPP2 are separate organizations, they cooperate when it comes to specifying services that ideally should be the same (from the users' perspective), regardless of infrastructure and access technology. It should also be noted that quite a few equipment manufacturers need to keep their fingers in all pies and consequently are members of both projects. The five officially recognized standards-developing organizations that form the 3GPP2 collaborative effort (organization partners) are ARIB, CWTS, TIA/EIA, TTA, and TTC. In addition, market representation partners are organizations that can offer market advice to 3GPP2. They bring to 3GPP2 a consensus view of market requirements (for example, services, features, and functionality) falling within the 3GPP2 scope. These organizations are the CDMA develop group (CDG), the Mobile Wireless Internet Forum (MWIF), and the IPv6 forum.

3GPP2 is the culmination of efforts led by ANSI, TIA/EIA, and TIA/EIA TR-45. TIA/EIA has been chosen to be secretariat to 3GPP2. Observers from ETSI, Telecommunications Standards Advisory Council of Canada (TSACC), and China participate in 3GPP2.