School of Specs Inside one plenary: TSG SA#112Quick start

A week in one room · chapter 2 of 4 · 4 minutes

2 What came out of this one, in the plainest numbers

346 documents in, ten possible outcomes, 30 pieces of work started and 689 corrections let through — the whole meeting on one page.

2.1 The size of it

346 documents were handled over the four days [1]. They came from 62 different senders [2] and were sorted into 23 numbered agenda items [3].

Most of them were one of two things: a request to change an existing specification, or a proposal to start something new. 120 of the 346 were change-request packs [4] and 53 were new work item descriptions [5].

2.2 Ten possible outcomes

Every document left the meeting with exactly one word next to it, and the ten counts add up to 346.

Word Documents What it means
approved 199 [6] agreed, and it takes effect
noted 68 [7] read and filed; no decision taken
revised 60 [8] superseded by a new document number
postponed 5 [9] held over to a later meeting
endorsed 4 [10] supported, but it is not specification text
partially approved 4 [11] part of the pack went through
merged 2 [12] folded into another document
withdrawn 2 [13] pulled before a decision
agreed 1 [14] agreed in the joint session
replied to 1 [15] answered by an outgoing letter

2.3 What that adds up to

Three plain statements come out of those 346 documents.

Work started. 30 new work items and study items were approved [16] and 11 existing ones were updated [17].

Documents finished. 26 specifications and technical reports were approved [18], and 6 more were only noted for information [19].

Corrections put to the meeting. 689 individual change requests [20], landing on 114 different specifications [21]. That is what arrived, not what passed: four packs came out only partially approved [11].

2.4 Four of the things that were started

Names make the numbers real. Four of the 30 approvals:

  • Post-quantum cryptography migration, a new work item description SP-260663

  • Withdrawing the Release 18 and Release 19 specifications of the 256-bit cryptographic algorithms SP-260664

  • A study on extra capabilities for emergency calls SP-260654

  • An AI-based speech codec for voice over satellite, the meeting's long argument SP-260696

Two of the 26 finished documents are worth a name too: the report of the study on putting satellite components into the 5G architecture SP-260692, and TR 21.919, the technical report that summarises every Release 19 feature SP-260604.

2.5 And three things that did not go through

  • The change to how change requests work for 3GPP Forge was postponed — the report says "This was postponed." SP-260411, [22]

  • Every working group's terms of reference was held over, so all six can be looked at side by side SP-260470, [23]

  • Two documents were withdrawn during the meeting, one of them the revision of a paper from ten public bodies about designing 6G to be secure from the start [13], SP-260643

2.6 Which release the work belongs to

A release is a numbered edition of the standard, and several are alive at once. The document counts show which is at which stage.

  • Release 20 is being written — 140 documents [24], and 487 of the change requests inside packs [25]

  • Release 19 is being finished off — 26 documents [26] and 143 change requests [27]

  • Release 21 has only a timeline — 11 documents [28], and the timeline itself was agreed with the radio side rather than by SA alone [29]

  • 162 documents carry no release at all — agendas, reports, letters, project management [30]

That last line is worth keeping. A plenary is not only about releases; a large part of it is about running the project.

2.7 Where two honest numbers disagree

The change requests of this meeting can be counted two ways, and both counts are in the data.

689 comes from splitting the specification column of every change request and every pack [20]. 673 comes from adding up the four release counts, which look only inside the packs.

Neither is wrong. The habit worth having is to say which one you mean.

And every figure on this page is read out of the meeting's own files, of which the narrative one is a draft marked "Status: Draft - for comment" [31].

Where the numbers in this chapter come from

  1. 346 documents at SA#112 sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112';", read 2026-08-04
  2. 62 different sources submitted documents distinct values of source over the same 346 rows. A source is a working group or a company, and one entry may name several, read 2026-08-04
  3. 23 top-level agenda items rows of the agenda table in SP-260361_SA112_Agenda_v2.md whose item number has no dot in it, read 2026-08-04
  4. 120 documents of type 'CR pack' sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and tdoctype='CR pack';", read 2026-08-04
  5. 53 documents of type 'WID new' sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and tdoctype='WID new';", read 2026-08-04
  6. 199 documents ended the meeting 'approved' sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and status='approved';", read 2026-08-04
  7. 68 documents ended the meeting 'noted' sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and status='noted';", read 2026-08-04
  8. 60 documents ended the meeting 'revised' sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and status='revised';", read 2026-08-04
  9. 5 documents ended the meeting 'postponed' sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and status='postponed';", read 2026-08-04
  10. 4 documents ended the meeting 'endorsed' sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and status='endorsed';", read 2026-08-04
  11. 4 documents ended the meeting 'partially approved' sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and status='partially approved';", read 2026-08-04
  12. 2 documents ended the meeting 'merged' sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and status='merged';", read 2026-08-04
  13. 2 documents ended the meeting 'withdrawn' sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and status='withdrawn';", read 2026-08-04
  14. 1 document ended the meeting 'agreed' sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and status='agreed';", read 2026-08-04
  15. 1 document ended the meeting 'replied to' sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and status='replied to';", read 2026-08-04
  16. 30 new work items and study items were approved the '30 Entries' line closing the matching annex table of SP-112_Draft_Report_v005.md, read 2026-08-04
  17. 11 work items and study items were updated the '11 Entries' line closing the matching annex table of SP-112_Draft_Report_v005.md, read 2026-08-04
  18. 26 specifications and reports were approved the '26 Entries' line closing the matching annex table of SP-112_Draft_Report_v005.md, read 2026-08-04
  19. 6 specifications and reports were noted for information the '6 Entries' line closing the matching annex table of SP-112_Draft_Report_v005.md, read 2026-08-04
  20. 689 individual change requests the crspec column of every CR and CR pack row of tdoc for meeting='SP-112', split on spaces and counted. Each token is one change request against one specification, read 2026-08-04
  21. 114 specifications were changed distinct tokens of the crspec column over the same CR and CR pack rows, read 2026-08-04
  22. 'This was postponed.' found character for character in SP-112_Draft_Report_v005.md, which is a draft and says so on its cover, read 2026-08-04
  23. 'It was decided to ask SA WG4, SA WG5 and SA WG6 to also submit ToRs to the next TSG SA meeting and SA WG1, SA WG2 and SA WG3 may update or re-submit the same ToR proposals.' found character for character in SP-112_Draft_Report_v005.md, which is a draft and says so on its cover, read 2026-08-04
  24. 140 documents belong to Rel-20 sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and release='Rel-20';", read 2026-08-04
  25. 487 change requests in packs belong to Rel-20 the crrelease field of every entry of the crsinpack list inside the line column of tdoc for meeting='SP-112', read 2026-08-04
  26. 26 documents belong to Rel-19 sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and release='Rel-19';", read 2026-08-04
  27. 143 change requests in packs belong to Rel-19 the crrelease field of every entry of the crsinpack list inside the line column of tdoc for meeting='SP-112', read 2026-08-04
  28. 11 documents belong to Rel-21 sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and release='Rel-21';", read 2026-08-04
  29. 'SP-260595 was presented in the Joint session and was agreed.' found character for character in SP-112_Draft_Report_v005.md, which is a draft and says so on its cover, read 2026-08-04
  30. 162 documents carry no release sqlite3 /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite "select count(*) from tdoc where meeting='SP-112' and (release is null or release='');", read 2026-08-04
  31. SP-112 draft meeting report, version 0.0.5

Every source this course is built on

Check yourself

Answers appear when you pick one, with where they come from.

Q2.1 How many documents were handled at SA#112, and how many were approved?

Q2.2 What does the status "noted" mean?

Q2.3 Which release was being written at the time of this meeting?

Q2.4 The data holds both 689 and 673 change requests. What should you do?

This chapter was built from a source register generated 2026-08-04. A fresher build of the register may hold different numbers.