ETSI provides an open and inclusive environment to support the development and testing of globally applicable standards for ICT-enabled systems, applications and services across all sectors of industry and society.
The membership includes universities, research bodies, associations and public authorities, as well as industrial companies of all sizes; a quarter of ETSI's members are small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
You may also download our 
membership leaflet.
What an ETSI member can do
Becoming a member of ETSI enables you to:
- Be part of our open and innovative community and network with Industry leaders
- Enhance your organization’s visibility and raise your company’s profile
- Access the most up to date information on global telecommunications standards and gain expertise in valuable standard developments
- Contribute your requirements and bring them into technical specifications
- Take a leadership role among experts
- Gain decision power in standardization and influence the direction of standards development
- Benefit from diverse technical activities that can help your business and create new markets
- Gain insight into European Regulations
- Gain competitiveness through insight of emerging standards and easier early adoption of the latest standards
- Meet with your customers and competitors in a neutral and informal environment
ETSI's members actively participate in the work of the Institute: they determine ETSI's work programme, allocate resources and approve the output. As a result, ETSI's activities are closely aligned with market needs and there is wide global acceptance of its standards.
You can also look at the ETSI information policy.
ETSI Member logo
To enable our members to show their engagement and pride in ETSI, we have created a dedicated ‘ETSI member’ logo for use exclusively by our members. This ‘ETSI member’ logo is derived from the official ETSI logo and allows ETSI members to easily and clearly declare that their organization is an integral part of ETSI: an ETSI member.
Open approach to standards making
Openness is part of ETSI culture and is visible across the full range of our activities.
- The standards-making processes are transparent and open
- ETSI creates standards by consensus
- Members participate directly in the standards-making process rather than via a national delegation or a National Standards Organization (NSO)
- ETSI members decide their work programme, allocate resources and make and set the standards
- ETSI has established a widely respected Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy which balances the needs of standardization and the rights of the owners of IPRs
Any company or organization, from any part of the world, with a legitimate interest in our work, can become a member of ETSI and participate in the work of all our technical groups.
We believe one of the best ways to encourage market growth and innovation is to allow open access to standards. So, once approved, our standards and reports are made publicly available, free of charge, from our website.
By making our standards accessible to all, we support research and development, and we enable markets to grow and industry to compete.
Starting New Activities
Our complete standards-making process – from conception right through to approved standard – is well-defined and based on consensus and transparency.
Suggestions for new standardization activities can come from various sources. For example:
- Our members may make a direct request to bring an activity into ETSI. Such a proposal needs the agreement of four or more ETSI members.
- The European Commission (EC) or the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) may propose activities
- Contacts with external groups, such as research projects, may trigger new work for us
- Our staff may identify new opportunities and initiatives
Our members themselves decide what work we will do. The entire membership is given the opportunity to endorse a proposal, or to object to it if they so wish.
Early standardization and R&D
The introduction of standardization as early as possible in the development of a new technology provides a solid foundation for its future exploitation. It is enormously beneficial for R&D projects to begin early standardization or even pre-standardization activities in a recognized, global standards environment. We therefore participate in collaborative research projects and monitor R&D to identify relevant areas for possible standardization.
If you want more information on the ETSI Education about Standardization activities please contact education@etsi.org.
Representation of societal stakeholders and SMEs
All our work at ETSI is guided by openness and inclusiveness, as seen by our:
- Transparent, consensus-based decision making process
- Direct participation of all interested stakeholders, locally and globally
- Free download of all our published standards
- A network of partnerships with organizations worldwide
- Dedicated representation of societal stakeholders and SMEs
- Specific measures to ensure our work reflects society’s needs
Our standards are not merely technical documents. A choice of technology can have a wide-ranging impact:
- Technologies can have little, or significant environmental impact
- Technologies can assist, or impede users with specific abilities
- Technologies can meet, or ignore society’s needs
It is important that our work takes account of market and societal needs at the same time, and that societal stakeholders are represented alongside the technical experts from our members.
Four organizations are recognized by the European Commission to represent the interests of societal stakeholders and SMEs in European Standardization. These are:
- ANEC, representing consumers
- ECOS, representing environmental interests
- ETUC, representing social interests
- SBS, representing SMEs
Their role is outlined in the European Union’s Regulation on European Standardization, 1025/2012.
ETSI has developed the 3SI Programme to ensure their opinions are better heard.
In addition, each of these organizations is an ETSI member and participates directly, with the same rights as any other member.
The contribution societal stakeholders bring
ANEC, ECOS and ETUC bring a wealth of technical expertise to the standards development process. Through their participation, the standards development process benefits from perspectives that are otherwise often missing.
Not only do ANEC, ECOS and ETUC enhance the quality of standards, they also contribute to building confidence in the standardization system. This has long been recognized by policy makers and cemented with the adoption of Regulation (EU) 1025/2012 on European Standardization.
ANEC
ANEC is the European consumer voice in standardisation, defending consumer interests in the processes of technical standardisation and conformity assessment, as well as related legislation and public policies. ANEC was established in 1995 as an international non-profit association under Belgian law and is open to the representation of national consumer organisations in 34 countries. ANEC is funded by the European Union and EFTA, with national consumer organisations contributing in kind. Its Secretariat is based in Brussels.
ECOS
Established in 2001, ECOS is the only organization worldwide that defends the environmental interests in the standards development process at European and international level. Its mission is to influence the development of ambitious strategies to reduce and control sources of environmental pollution, and to promote resource and energy efficiency, environmental health and sustainable development. ECOS is involved in over 60 technical committees across Europe and beyond and participates, mainly through experts, in the standards development work.
ETUC
ETUC, the European Trade Union Confederation, is the voice of European workers in standardization. With 45 million members from 90 trade union organizations in 38 European countries, plus 10 European Trade Union Federations, ETUC promotes high quality working conditions for workers in the standardization process.
ETUC launched the ETUC STAND project to strengthen the worker's voice in standardisation to ensure standards promote high-quality working conditions. They aim to ensure that the EU is not just a single market for goods and services, but also a Social Europe, where improving the wellbeing of workers and their families is an equally important priority. We defend fundamental social values such as solidarity, equality, democracy, social justice and cohesion.
ETUC works on a range of areas of relevance for workers. These include industrial advancement and services standards (e.g. maintenance & facility management, horizontal services, healthcare). Their work on standards is co-financed by the European Commission and EFTA Member States.
www.etuc.org/issue/standardisation
SBS
Small Business Standards (SBS) is a European non-profit association (aisbl) co-financed by the European Commission and EFTA Member States. Its goal is to represent and defend small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) interests in the standardization process at European and international levels. Moreover, it aims at raising the awareness of SMEs about the benefits of standards and at encouraging them to get involved in the standardization process.
SBS was established to meet the European Union’s aspiration to make the standardization system as inclusive, transparent and open as possible in line with Regulation 1025/2012 on the European Standardization System.
Users
We know that the ultimate success of our standards depends on meeting the needs of users – both the users of our standards, and the end-users of the products and services based on them.
We recognize a range of different types of user:
- consumers
- business users
- users with special needs
- service providers
- telecommunications operators as users of systems and services
- government departments
We are keen to involve users in our work and we have a category of membership specifically for user organizations. They have the same rights to participate in our standardization activities and the same level of access as any other company or organization within the ICT related industry.
We also seek to safeguard the interests of users at the highest levels in ETSI. So, when appointing one of the Vice-Chairs of our General Assembly, we give preference to a candidate representing user members (unless the Chair is drawn from this category). We also reserve one seat on the ETSI Board specifically for a user representative.
The User Group
We have established a ‘User Group’ to represent the interests of users of information and communications technology products and services. The User Group ensures other ETSI committees are aware of users’ views and needs. In this way our standards, and their relevancy, are improved. The User Group is also available for consultation by our committee chairs as needed.
To keep up to date with the latest issues, from time to time, the User Group conducts surveys within the user population at large or organizes workshops on current issues to gain feedback from users. The User Group co-operates with many user organizations in Europe.
Joining ETSI as a user
Not-for-profit user associations benefit from reduced membership dues.
Our Director for Membership Development will be happy to answer any questions you have.