The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is a working group of ISO/IEC in charge of the development of international standards for compression, decompression, processing, and coded representation of moving pictures, audio and their combination. So far MPEG has produced MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4. MPEG is now developing MPEG-7 MPEG-21, the multimedia framework. MPEG usually holds three meetings a year. These comprise plenary meetings and subgroup meetings on Requirements, Systems, Multimedia Description Schemes, Video, Audio, Synthetic Natural Hybrid Coding, Test, Implementation Studies and Liaison. MPEG meetings are attended by over 300 experts from over 20 countries.

ETSI (the European Telecommunications Standards Institute) is a not for profit organization whose mission is to produce the telecommunications standards that will be used for decades to come throughout Europe and beyond. Based in Sophia Antipolis, south of France, ETSI unites 768 members from 55 countries inside and outside Europe, and represents administrations, network operators, manufacturers, service providers, research bodies and users. The Institute's work programme is determined by its members, who are also responsible for approving its deliverables. As a result, ETSI's activities are maintained in close alignment with the market needs expressed by its members. ETSI plays a major role in developing a wide range of standards and other technical documentation as Europe's contribution to world-wide standardization in telecommunications, broadcasting and information technology.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration agreement that was established in December 1998. The collaboration agreement brings together a number of telecommunications standards bodies, which are known as Organizational Partners. The current Organizational Partners are ARIB, CWTS, ETSI, T1, TTA, and TTC.The original scope of 3GPP was to produce globally applicable Technical Specifications and Technical Reports for a 3rd Generation Mobile System based on evolved GSM core networks and the radio access technologies that they support (i.e., Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) both Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) modes). The scope was subsequently amended to include the maintenance and development of the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM)

"The UMTS Forum is an open, international body for promoting the global uptake of third generation (3G) mobile systems and services. The UMTS Forum recognises the importance of all players - including new entrants - in the mobile value chain. As well as offering guidance to governmental and financial communities it also provides marketing input to technical standardisation bodies and advises on spectrum requirements both for the present and future 3G systems. The UMTS Forum serves the interests of all its members through educational and promotional activities in its role as the voice of the 3G mobile market. Objectives to promote global success for UMTS/3G services delivered on all third generation system technologies recognised by the ITU

The OFDM Forum is a voluntary association of hardware manufacturers, software firms and other users of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technology in wireless applications. The OFDM Forum was created to foster a single, compatible OFDM standard, needed to implement cost-effective, high-speed wireless networks on a variety of devices. OFDM is a cornerstone technology for the next generation of high-speed wireless data products and services for both corporate and consumer use. With the introduction of the IEEE 802.11a, ETSI BRAN, and multimedia applications, the wireless world is ready for products based on OFDM technology. At the invitation of Wi-LAN Inc. and Philips Semiconductors, 101 representatives from 60 companies worldwide met in December 1999 to discuss the formation of an international market development organization.