Handset and Standards Bodies

The large number of technologies incorporated in a handset is reflected in the fact
that the standards on which this technology is based emanate from a diverse range
of standards organizations and industry forums. From the perspective
of the core cellular functionality, the most significant standards bodies are the two
3G bodies, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the Third Generation
Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2).

3GPP is responsible for the UMTS standard and also assumes responsibility from
ETSI for the GSM standard on which UMTS is based. 3GPP2 is responsible for the
cdma2000 family of technologies, which includes the Evolution systems, 1xEV-DO
(1x Evolution Data Optimized) and 1 x EV-DV (1x Evolution Data and Voice).

Both 3GPP and 3GPP2 have very similar structures, and indeed members.
The two organizations are composed of organizational partners (OPs), which are
national or regional standards organizations such as ETSI or the Telecommunications
Industry Association (TIA). It is important to note that there are cooperative
links between the two bodies as there is a lot of crossover technology that does not
rely on the underlying network standards and can therefore be transferred.
In addition to the OPs, both the 3GPP and 3GPP2 have market representation
partners (MRPs) and observers who contribute to the standards processes.
The technologies covered by the two 3G bodies represent approximately 98 percent
of the global users of mobile or cellular networks. In addition to the 3GPP and
3GPP2 standards, many other organizations have a bearing on handset design and
functionality; these include:

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
The Open Mobile Alliance (OMA)
The International Standards Organization (ISO)
The range of applicable standards in a handset is indicative of the convergence
between telecommunications, Internet technology, and broadcasting and
entertainment.