Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (00:08):
Hi, Tony Poulos here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona 2025. Today I have with me Jan Ellsberger, who is the director general of ETSI. Jan, Welcome. Firstly, how do you see ETSI's role in the global telecom sector and how can make an impact?

Jan Ellsberger, ETSI (00:27):
ETSI is already making a tremendous impact in the global telecom sector. ETSI was founded in 1988 by CEPT, based on an initiative on the European Commission to be responsible for creating standards for the liberalization of the European telecom market. And to secure that Europe was the first region in the world that developed, standardized and deployed digital mobile communication system, GSM. And since that, ETSI has continued to build on that success to be sort of the founding 3G PP, which is now standardizing all the mobile generations and also still continuing to be a major player, being responsible for telecommunication standards and ICT standards in general from a European point of view.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (01:19):
Well, in this day and age, are global standards still a possibility and are we still leading towards them?

Jan Ellsberger, ETSI (01:26):
Yes. I mean, of course global standardization is required. I mean, we all need to have global harmonization, global technology alignment, and interability. I mean, if you would've had global standard, you wouldn't be able to be here in Barcelona and bring way to your mobile phone to use it. So Global Sanders are definitely a requirement and there are no indications that we are going to leave that paradigm. Global standardization, global technology alignment and global innovation is required if you want to develop and standardize the best technologies.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (01:59):
Well, something closer to home. How does ETSI interact, say with the European Union and other such bodies, how involved is it involved in the regulations that these countries and regions are enforcing and helping its members to adapt to these changing regulatory requirements?

Jan Ellsberger, ETSI (02:16):
I think ETSI is doing two things. I mean, first we are recognize European standards organization, and by that we are producing and developing harmonized standards in support of European regulation. So of course we are in close contact with the European Commission and the member states to do that work. Secondly, we are also playing a very significant role when it comes to securing European competitiveness because the European Commission is guiding at sea in which technology areas should we, from a European perspective, bring out the standards and collaborate with our global partners on to secure that we have a global impact from a European point of view.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (02:58):
Well, AI of course is the subject that's dominating most of the headlines this week here at the event. But is it impacting every aspect of the telecom sector? And what is ETSI doing to help the industry make the most of the opportunities that AI is offering to us? And what are the main takeaways from ETSI's recent AI conference?

Jan Ellsberger, ETSI (03:18):
I think from ETSI point of view, we are doing two things. Basically. We have a technic on secure AI looking at the security or secure aspects of ai. We are also recently, we have recently created a technic on data. Data is the foundation of ai. Without data machine learning, you wouldn't be able to provide any AI systems. So that is also a foundation that we have and that we are working systematically with the recent takeaways from the ETSI conference, I mean it was very much about trustworthy ai. AI and how we can drive that forward from the industry.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (04:00):
And apart from ai, what are the key focus areas that ETSI members want to focus on? Sometimes they want to focus on different things to you, but I imagine security might be one of them.

Jan Ellsberger, ETSI (04:10):
Yeah, security, of course. Cybersecurity, cyber resilience is something which is high on agenda ai, as you mentioned, six G of course, the preparatory work we're doing from essay point of view in preparation on driving research results into 3G PP, we are also working on intelligent transportation systems, railway systems, broadcasting different content delivery formats, et cetera. So we have a wide range of different activities in ETSI.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (04:41):
And when talk about six G, how far advanced are we looking at six G, and how is ETSI involved with that?

Jan Ellsberger, ETSI (04:48):
I mean, as I said, ETS mean 3G PPP is a global partnership project. ETSI is one of the partners. We are actually the founding partner of 3G ppp. From an ETSI point of view, we are bringing European and research results through ETSI into 3G ppp. So ETSI is providing a platform where members are coming together to pre standardize some of the six G research results before they are coming into and being part of the GGP process. Six G, I mean 3G PP will next week have a very big workshop in South Korea where they will discuss the different use cases and requirements on six G. So we're in the very early stages how that process will play out. What will be the final requirements on six G? We don't know yet.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (05:36):
Well, as an industry, we never seem to stop moving forward. Jan, thanks very much for being with me today.

Jan Ellsberger, ETSI (05:41):
Thank you very much. Pleasure.