ETSI Headquarters, Sophia Antipolis, France – 12 July 2012

In a ceremony at the ITU headquarters in Geneva on 3 July, the ETSI Director General and the ITU Secretary General have signed a wide ranging Memorandum of Understanding between the two institutes.

ETSI has collaborated with the ITU on telecommunications and ICT standardization projects almost since ETSI's foundation. ETSI has previously had agreements with each of the ITU's three sectors, Telecommunications, Radiocommunications and Development, and still enjoys sector membership status in each of these. 

This new agreement will provide a common framework for future cooperation between ETSI and the ITU. It will improve the dialogue and exchange of information between the two standards development organizations, as well as providing a mechanism for the exchange of draft documents and referencing of each other's specifications. 

Cooperation between standards development organizations is required at a technical level when dealing with subjects of common interest, in order to avoid conflicting standards and increased costs to industry. For example, ETSI and the ITU already maintain a close liaison due to ETSI's role as an official European Standards Organization, producing standards which, together with the work of CEPT, form the cornerstone of radiocommunications regulation within the CEPT region. 

In dealing with subjects of wider societal interest, greater collaboration ensures a broader spectrum of interests is taken into account. This is evident in the work that both the ITU and ETSI are undertaking on the environmental impact and sustainability of ICT, and the broader ‘Green Agenda' related to climate change.

ETSI Director General, Luis Jorge Romero: "ETSI is recognized by industry for its work in standards for ICT in the fixed, radio, mobile and broadcast domains, and our drive for excellence can be seen in our continuing focus on testing and interoperability. Our membership has grown to become global and in many cases is common with the ITU, which has resulted in a strong partnership and common goals being built up between us.
Today we welcome the renewal of our relationship with the ITU and the extension of our co-operation into new fields."

Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General, ITU: "ITU standards allow international access to the innovations progressing our Information Society. This is achieved through cooperation with national and regional standards bodies to uncover the most valuable innovations and standards, no matter where they originate. It is thus very encouraging to see an extension of ITU's MoU with ETSI, an action which will ensure ITU standards reflect the current ‘state of the art' in European ICT standardization at the international level."

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Notes for Editors


About ETSI
ETSI produces globally-applicable standards for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), including fixed, mobile, radio, converged, aeronautical, broadcast and internet technologies and is officially recognized by the European Union as a European Standards Organization. ETSI is an independent, not-for-profit association whose more than 700 member companies and organizations, drawn from 62 countries across 5 continents worldwide, determine its work programme and participate directly in its work. 
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