Page 65 - Proceedings of the 2017 ITU Kaleidoscope

Challenges for a data-driven society

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those directly and indirectly affected by standards. European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
Moreover, technology standards, albeit their voluntary ETSI is a non-for-profit association established by the
nature, can impose de facto rules for a particular sector and mandate of European Conference of Postal and
hence become coercive. Such transformation is legitimized Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), with support
when standards development respects due process and of the European Commission. It is also one of the three
reflects the interests of all affected stakeholders [12], which European Standards Organizations (ESOs) mentioned in
in turn increases the chance of standards’ industry-wide Annex I of Regulation 1025/2012, and hence entitled to set
acceptance [13]. Given the nexus between SDOs’ harmonized European standards (ENs). From the moment of
governance and the effect their standards produce on the its creation to current days, ETSI has published over 30.000
variety of stakeholders, it is reasonable to expect that standards in the areas of radio and Internet technologies,
requirements of transparency, openness and consensus mobile telecommunication and cellular networks. Standards
would also apply to rule-and and policy-making processes of developed by ETSI are offered free of charge. ETSI’s
SDOs. membership is divided into categories, ranging from
In that behalf, the ignorance of governance processes within administrations and NSOs to service providers and
SDOs is quite astonishing. The idea that the establishment of manufacturers, and is open only for entities. Once decided
SDOs’ operational rules should be subject to similar on the category, a future ETSI member can chose between
principles as the establishment of standards had not gained full and associate membership, or observership. Observers
much support from the regulators, leaving governance should fulfil the conditions of full or associate membership,
processes a matter of the SDOs’ self-regulatory regime. The but their participation in ETSI’s activities is rather limited
exception would have been the principle of “openness” and subject to a lower fee. At the moment of writing, ETSI
suggested by the Decision of the Technical Barriers to Trade counts around 800 members from 66 counties.
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(TBT) Committee of the World Trade Organization (WTO), The main governing body of the ETSI, the General
which requires “unrestricted participation in all stage of Assembly, is empowered to adopt procedural rules and
standards and policy development”, but specifies that binding resolutions, approve European Standards, handle
meaningful participation opportunities should be guaranteed membership requests and amend ETSI’s governance
only for the stages of standards development, rendering the documents. The General Assembly also reserves the right to
first part of the sentence inutile. expel a member in case of non-payment of contributions or
To demonstrate whether there is a disconnect between substantial breach of other membership obligations. When
stakeholders involved in standards development and approving a standard document, the General Assembly
governance processes, the next section analyzes five decides by the Weighted National Voting, whereby a vote is
prominent SDOs - European Telecommunications given by the heads of each National Delegation: this implies
Standards Institute (ETSI), Institute of Electrical and that private companies, who constitute the most part of
Electronics Engineers Standards Association (IEEE-SA), ETSI’s membership, are not (directly) represented in the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF); World Wide Web mentioned processes. For ENs’ approval, the balloting
Consortium (W3C) and Bluetooth Special Interest Group occurs after the NSOs have conducted public enquiry. Yet,
(Bluetooth SIG) - as regards their standard-setting when amending ETSI’s Statutes and the Rules of Procedure,
procedures, rule-making and dispute resolution. the General Assembly takes decisions by qualified majority
voting, meaning that the votes of all ETSI members –
3. COMPARISON OF SDOS STANDARD-SETTING including private companies established outside the CEPT
AND GOVERNANCE DECISION-MAKING area – are counted. The EC and the European Free Trade
Association (EFTA) participate in the meetings of the
3.1. Analysis of SDOs’ operational frameworks General Assembly as Counsellors, but have no voting rights.
To act on its behalf in daily activities of the ETSI, the
The SDOs selected for this study operate in the area of ICT, General Assembly appoints the Board, which consists of full
telecommunications and Internet, and play a considerable Members and the Director-General. The Board establishes
role in the digitalized society. The difference in their its own procedural rules, but its decisions can be overruled
institutional architecture should be noted from the outset: by the General Assembly. Standardization activities take
while ETSI and IEEE-SA fit the definition of formal place in ETSI’s Technical Organization, which in turn
organizations, IETF represents a “loosely self-organized encompasses a number of Technical Bodies responsible for
group of people who contribute to the engineering and the drafting of technical documents. Each Technical Body
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evolution of Internet technologies”. In turn, both W3C and may establish Working Groups and decide on the rules
Bluetooth SIG are examples of industry-driven consortia, governing their activities; however, only the Board or the
managed by a group of founding members/promotors. General Assembly can create and dissolve Technical Bodies.
If disputes arise between (a) Member(s) against the ETSI,

5 G/TBT/9, Annex 4: Decision on Principles for the Development 6 Hoffman, P., ‘The TAO of IETF: A Novice’s Guide to the Internet
of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations with Engineering Task Force’ (2012) retrieved from
Relation to Articles 2, 5 and Annex 3 of the TBT Agreement, issued https://www.ietf.org/tao.html.
on 20 November 2000. 7 ETSI Directives (April 2017) retrieved from
https://portal.etsi.org/Resources/ETSIDirectives.aspx.

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