Concept
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 and 2.5G 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 consortium with seven national or regional telecommunication standards organizations as primary members ("organizational partners") and a variety of other organizations as associate members ("market representation partners"). The 3GPP organizes its work into three different streams: Radio Access Networks, Services and Systems Aspects, and Core Network and Terminals. 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 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), which developed 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. The seven 3GPP Organizational Partners are from Asia, Europe and North America. Their aim is to determine the general policy and strategy of 3GPP and perform the following tasks: The approval and maintenance of the 3GPP scope; The maintenance of the Partnership Project Description; Take the decision to create or cease a Technical Specification Groups, and approve their scope and terms of reference; The approval of Organizational Partner funding requirements; The allocation of human and financial resources provided by the Organizational Partners to the Project Co-ordination Group; Act as a body of appeal on procedural matters referred to them.