3GPP

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is an umbrella term for a number of standards organizations which develop protocols for mobile telecommunications. Its best known work is the development and maintenance of: GSM and related 2G, 2.5G, and 2.75G standards, including GPRS and EDGE UMTS and related 3G standards, including HSPA and HSPA+ LTE and related 4G standards, including LTE Advanced and LTE Advanced Pro 5G NR and related 5G standards, including 5G-Advanced An evolved IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) developed in an access independent manner 3GPP is a partnership project whose partners are its Organizational Partners (OPs), which are seven national or regional telecommunication standards organizations, and its Market Representation Partners (MRPs), which are a variety of other organizations. 3GPP organizes its work into three different streams: Radio Access Networks (TSG RAN), Services and Systems Aspects (TSG SA), and Core Network and Terminals (TSG CT). The project was established in December 1998 with the goal of developing a specification for a 3G mobile phone system based on the 2G GSM system, within the scope of the International Telecommunication Union's International Mobile Telecommunications-2000, hence the name 3GPP. It should not be confused with now discontinued 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), which shadowed the 3GPP work to continue the development of a competing 3G system, CDMA2000. The 3GPP administrative support team (known as the "Mobile Competence Centre") is located at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute headquarters in the Sophia Antipolis technology park in France.