Context: The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is an independent not-for-profit body dedicated to ICT standardization that addresses market needs expressed by more than 900 ETSI members located in well over 60 countries around the world, while at the same time developing standards in support of EU legislation. As underlined in his interview with ip fray last year, since his appointment in July 2024, Director-General Jan Ellsberger has strived to develop globally applicable digital standards in strategic areas for the European Union, such as ICT, broadcasting, IoT, Cybersecurity, AI, Quantum, and Data, as well as re-establish ETSI’s role in the European standardization system (June 30, 2025 ip fray article).
What’s new: The ETSI Director-General has announced the “new chapter” for his organization, outlining the progress it has made since his appointment, and where it plans to go next (September 7, 2026 LinkedIn post by Jan Ellsberger). Among those was becoming a “more global” ETSI, which a spokesperson for the organization confirmed with ip fray involved strengthening relationships with key standards organizations and collaborating on areas such as mobile communications, cybersecurity, IoT and emerging network technologies in East Asia, as well as seeing growing participation in ETSI activities from technology companies, research organizations and public-sector stakeholders in North America.
Direct impact and wider ramifications: The next chapter for ETSI will continue to focus on a “stronger role” in Europe and expanding its technological footprint through its new technical committees (including on Critical Communications Systems and AI), but the money and time it is putting into external relationships also reflects the heightened role it plans to have globally. This is mainly due to the global relevance of its work, particularly in areas such as AI, cybersecurity, cloud technologies, Open RAN, and future communications systems.
In a statement, Mr. Ellsberger said the “next chapter” at ETSI won’t just be about developing standards. It will be about building ecosystems, enabling innovation and ensuring European expertise continues to have global impact. He added:
“It is a journey I am proud to undertake with such fantastic colleagues.”
He noted that the progress that has occurred since his appointment is “visible” and can be seen in the following ways:
Stronger role in Europe
According to Mr. Ellsberger, ETSI’s collaboration with the European Commission is “deeper than ever”. The organization’s dual status as a European Standards Organisation (ESO) and globally recognised Standards Development Organisation (SDO) is increasingly understood and valued across European institutions. It brings together participants from around the world and develops standards with global relevance and adoption. The combination of being both an ESO and an SDO allows European priorities to be reflected in standards that can achieve international impact, helping to avoid market fragmentation and strengthening Europe’s influence in key technology domains. This, a spokesperson told ip fray, is reflected in that ETSI is explicitly positioned as the platform where to implement EU Digital Partnerships in standards.
Broader technological footprint
ETSI has been expanding beyond telecoms, including through the establishment of a new Technical Committee on Quantum Technologies (September 30, 2025 ip fray article), and ETSI EN 304 223 — Europe’s first standard focused on securing AI.
Other developments from ETSI’s Technical Committees include releasing a new technical specification defining security requirements for AI (June 2, 2026 ETSI press release), creating a new Technical Committee on Critical Communications Systems (May 21, 2026 ETSI press release), releasing the first standards supporting the European Digital Identity Wallet (June 11, 2026 ETSI press release), and launching 17 vertical final draft standards developed in the framework of the EU Cyber Resilience Act (August 13, 2026 ETSI press release).
A more global ETSI
ETSI is also strengthening its engagement across Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, while deepening ties with Japan, South Korea, India and seeing rising interest from North America, Mr. Ellsberger revealed.
In East Asia specifically, ETSI maintains long-standing relationships with key standards organizations and regularly collaborates on areas such as mobile communications, cybersecurity, IoT and emerging network technologies.
In North America, ETSI is seeing growing participation in its activities from technology companies, research organizations and public-sector stakeholders. ETSI’s conferences, workshops and partnership agreements also provide important channels for international collaboration, while ETSI is engaged in discussions with U.S. and Canadian government agencies on how to strengthen collaboration, too.
Modernising ETSI
Beyond launching a new website, as Mr. Ellsberger noted, ETSI has also invested in the digital transformation of its standards development processes, improving collaboration tools, document management systems and online participation capabilities.
The organization has also streamlined a number of internal workflows, expanded support for hybrid and virtual meetings, and enhanced the accessibility of standards-related information and services. These efforts are intended to improve efficiency, increase transparency, and make participation easier for a diverse and growing international membership, ip fray was informed.