ATIS is a North American standards body that is leading the development of telecommunications standards, operating procedures and guidelines through its sponsored committees and forums. ATIS member companies are North American and providers of telecommunications services, and include wireline and wireless service providers, competitive local carriers, interexchange companies, local exchange companies, manufacturers, software developers, resellers, enhanced service providers, and providers of operations support. ATIS was established at the divestiture of the Bell System in 1984. As industry competition grew and new technologies developed, the role of ATIS expanded. Today, ATIS is one of the world's leading standards development bodies for telecommunications.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private, non-profit organization (501(c)3) that administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. The Institute's mission is to enhance both the global competitiveness of U.S. business and the U.S. quality of life by promoting and facilitating voluntary consensus standards and conformity assessment systems, and safeguarding their integrity.

Established in February 1984, Committee T1 develops technical standards and reports regarding interconnection and interoperability of telecommunications networks at interfaces with end-user systems, carriers, information and enhanced-service providers, and customer premises equipment (CPE). Committee T1-Telecommunications is sponsored by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) and is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Committee T1 has six technical subcommittees that are advised and managed by the T1 Advisory Group (T1AG). Each technical subcommittee develops draft standards and technical reports in its designated areas of expertise. The subcommittees recommend positions on matters under consideration by other national and international standards bodies.

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.