Traficom coordinates telecommunications standardisation
Traficom is responsible for telecommunications standardisation in Finland and represents Finland in international telecommunications standards organisations in the field of telecommunications. Together with stakeholders, Traficom drafts national opinions on issues raised by international organisations. Traficom also organises national public enquiries on telecommunications standards.
The standards are recommendations in nature. If a statute or regulation refers directly to a standard, this standard becomes a part of compelling legislation. It is important to make sure that international standards do not include any issues contrary to national interests.
Standardisation forms the basis of technical steering
Stakeholder cooperation
Traficom's national ITU-T/ETSI working group is a cooperation body for drafting national opinions on issues raised by the decision-making bodies of the Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). National stakeholders in the telecommunications sector can participate in the working group. Besides Traficom, the group includes representatives from Broadcom, Elisa, Ficom, Nokia and Telia Finland, among others.
Furthermore, Traficom has multiple working groups for technical steering with representatives from telecommunications operators, telecommunications industry, user groups and other stakeholder organisations. These technical working groups discuss standardisation within their sector either as their main task or as a part of their actual task.
Consultations on standards
Traficom organises consultations and votes of ITU-T and ETSI in Finland. When a new consultation or vote is initiated, Traficom reports this on its website or by email. Traficom submits the comments it has received to ITU-T and ETSI.
Approval of ITU-T Recommendations
ITU-T prepares Recommendations, which in practice have the status of global standards. The Recommendations developed by the ITU-T Study Groups are approved by responding to consultations.
ITU-T Recommendations are available free of charge on the ITU-T website (External link).
TAP (Traditional Approval Process)
The Traditional Approval Process is applied to Recommendations that may have policy or regulatory implications. These Recommendations are approved at a study group meeting. Before the meeting, ITU-T requests opinions of the member states’ telecommunications administrations on whether they authorise the study group to approve the Recommendations proposed in the consultation. Traficom responds to consultations for Finland.
Recommendations under TAP (External link)
AAP (Alternative Approval Process)
The Alternative Approval Process (AAP) is applied to technical Recommendations that do not have policy or regulatory implications. After a Recommendation is considered mature, ITU-T submits it for comments. If no comments are received, the Recommendation is considered approved. If there are comments, the Study Group discusses the Recommendation further.
AAP Announcements (External link)
ETSI consultations
Documents produced by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) are divided into five types. The European Standard (EN) approval process comprises national consultation and a vote. Furthermore, technical committees or working groups approve Technical Reports (TR) and Technical Specifications (TS), and ETSI members vote on the adoption of Guides (EG) and Standards (ES).
To approve EN standards, a public enquiry is organised in the member states. Approved EN standards are implemented in Finland as SFS standards.
EN Approval (External link)
Public Enquiry PE (External link)
Vote V (External link)
Please submit any comments on approvals in English by email to Sari Hulmi (firstname.lastname(at)traficom.fi) no later than two weeks before the end of the enquiry period. The procedure number indicates the final date of the enquiry period.
Standardisation work program
Traficom is responsible for telecommunications standardisation in Finland and represents Finland in international telecommunications standards organisations in the field of telecommunications. Together with stakeholders, Traficom drafts national opinions on issues raised by international organisations. Traficom also organises national public enquiries on telecommunications standards. There is a more detailed description of the matter at the top of this page.
Traficom does not intend to prepare or amend standards this year. Standards transposed by Traficom are identical to the transposed European standards.