School of Specs How standards actually get madeOverview

The 3GPP machine · chapter 2 of 7 · 9 minutes

2 The shape of 3GPP, and where the data stops

Technical Specification Groups, working groups, the permanent staff, who owns a document — and the several things about 3GPP's structure that no file here can tell you.

Built from §1 §2 §3.1 §4.2 §6.6

2.1 Three layers, and what they are called

The top technical layer is a Technical Specification Group, always written TSG. Under a TSG sit Working Groups, and under those, sub-groups §2.

The definitions clause is short and worth having exactly.

The reporting line is the whole point: a task is handed to a Working Group that answers directly to a TSG, and in practice the work may then be done in a subgroup of that Working Group §1. Nothing in this course's document describes what happens inside those subgroups — it says so itself, and leaves their internal working to them §1.

One piece of vocabulary saves a lot of squinting later. The document uses the bare word "group" as a technical term: a group is a TSG or a TSG sub-group, and a TSG sub-group is a working group, or a subgroup of a working group, or a subgroup of one of those §2.

So when a clause says "the responsible Group shall", it is deliberately not saying at which layer. Whoever holds the document decides.

2.2 The groups that hold meetings

The calendar on this machine records meetings for many bodies, not 3GPP's alone. Of everything in it, 4,371 entries are 3GPP meetings, the earliest the calendar holds starting 1998-12-07 and the latest planned for 2028-06-13 [1]. That first date is where the calendar begins; it is not evidence that no 3GPP body met before it.

Four series sit at TSG level. SA has 173 meetings recorded 3GPP SA, RAN has 160 3GPP RAN and CT has 110 3GPP CT. A fourth, GERAN, has only seven recorded, the last of them in 2016.

Below them:

  • SA has six working groups with their own meeting series, SA1 through SA6 3GPP SA 1, 3GPP SA 2, 3GPP SA 3, 3GPP SA 4, 3GPP SA 5, 3GPP SA 6.

  • RAN has RAN1 through RAN5 in their own right 3GPP RAN 1, 3GPP RAN 2, 3GPP RAN 3, 3GPP RAN 4, 3GPP RAN 5, plus a RAN6 that met nineteen times between 2016 and 2020.

  • CT has four: CT1, CT3, CT4 and CT6 3GPP CT 1, 3GPP CT 3, 3GPP CT 4, 3GPP CT 6. There is no CT2 and no CT5 in the calendar.

That whole list comes from one reading of the calendar, which shows 27 3GPP bodies holding a meeting series of their own — GERAN's seven meetings and RAN6's nineteen included [2].

Two bodies sit above the technical work and also meet: the Project Co-ordination Group, with 64 meetings recorded from 1999 on 3GPP PCG, and the Organizational Partners, with 58 recorded from 2015 on 3GPP OP.

A further 94 meetings are recorded under the bare name "3GPP" — workshops and gatherings belonging to no single group 3GPP.

2.3 The permanent staff

Delegates come and go with their companies. The Support Team does not: it is the permanent secretariat, also called the Mobile Competence Centre §2.

Its job is wider than minute-taking. It manages the work of the TSGs, edits every specification once the document is under change control, prepares and supports the meetings, and handles contact with outside bodies §3.1.

That editing role matters later. Once a document is under change control the delegates propose changes and the Support Team makes them, which is why a change to a 3GPP specification always goes through the same pair of hands.

2.4 Who owns a document

Every specification has one prime responsible TSG. It may have a prime responsible working group, and it may have secondary responsible groups as well. It must have a rapporteur: a delegate from a member company who takes part in the responsible group regularly §4.2.

The document also carries a model for how work flows between groups, and it uses TSG SA as its illustration: SA1 writes the requirements, SA2 turns them into an architecture and cuts that into pieces, and the pieces go out to the groups that will specify them in detail §6.6.

The document is careful to call this a reference model rather than a rule, and says it can be extended to any TSG or combination of them §6.6.

Two more things sit in that ownership list and are easy to miss. A specification may also have a prime responsible working group, and it may have a prime responsible sub-group below that working group, if the working group decides so §4.2.

And a document is either a Technical Specification or a Technical Report §4.2. The working-methods document uses "specification" as the umbrella word for both, which is why a sentence about "specifications" in these rules is often about reports as well §2.

2.5 Where the work sits

Counting the specifications a group's code is stamped on says what that group owns. It is a shelf, and a shelf is not a workload: a specification can sit untouched through a whole release, and one meeting of the radio performance group puts more paper in front of delegates than some groups see in a year.

What a body actually does is recorded meeting by meeting, in the calendar. Three things are in there for every meeting, and between them they answer the question the shelf only looks like it answers: how often the body met, how many delegates registered, and how many documents were filed to it.

Take two complete years, 2024 and 2025, so no half year is set against a whole one. 331 3GPP meetings were held in those two years [3], 86,887 delegate registrations were recorded across them [4], and 213,886 documents were filed to them [5].

Twenty-one 3GPP bodies held at least four meetings in that time [6]. "The middle meeting" below is the one in the middle of that body's own run — half its meetings were busier, half quieter. It is a meeting that really happened, which an average is not.

Body Meetings Delegates at the middle meeting Documents at the middle meeting
3GPP RAN 4 15 [7] 541 [8] 3,079 [9]
3GPP SA 2 16 [10] 453 [11] 1,694 [12]
3GPP RAN 2 13 [13] 702 [14] 1,617 [15]
3GPP RAN 1 14 [16] 1,092 [17] 1,600 [18]
3GPP SA 5 17 [19] 203 [20] 912 [21]
3GPP CT 1 13 [22] 231 [23] 907 [24]
3GPP SA 3 29 [25] 61 [26] 145 [27]
3GPP SA 4 70 [28] 32 [29] 16 [30]

Read the three columns against each other and the table stops being a ranking and starts being a description. RAN 4 handles the most paper. RAN 1 fills the biggest room. SA 4 meets more often than anybody — 70 times in two years — and its middle meeting has 32 delegates and 16 documents in it, because most of those 70 are short calls of one sub-group.

The shelf is still worth seeing, as long as it is read as a shelf. These are the group codes stamped on the most specifications:

Group code Specifications carrying it
S5 685 [31]
R4 458 [32]
S3 343 [33]
S2 321 [34]
S4 303 [35]
S1 256 [36]
C1 237 [37]
C4 236 [38]
RP 200 [39]

Of the whole catalogue, 3,599 specifications are marked still maintained [40] and 329 are marked no longer maintained [41]. Over all the years the record covers, not just the two above, 1,629,643 meeting documents are on file [42].

2.6 What this data cannot tell you

Four gaps, and they are worth knowing before somebody quotes a number at you.

The working-group list above comes from the meeting calendar, not from a specification. The working-methods document names SA1, SA2 and SA3 in passing while explaining the work model, and mentions CT and RAN; every other group name here was read out of the calendar §6.6.

The calendar runs to 2028 because it holds scheduled meetings as well as held ones, so its last date is never "the most recent meeting". It does not reach back evenly either: SA and RAN start in 1998, CT's first recorded meeting is 2005 3GPP CT, 3GPP SA. Those groups are older than their entries — a first recorded date is not a founding date.

Registering for a meeting is not turning up to one. The calendar counts the two separately, and the gap is wide: of the 86,887 registrations in 2024 and 2025 [4], 53,714 ended with a presence recorded [43]. Some bodies barely record presence at all, so the delegate column above is a count of who signed up.

And nobody is named. The Organizational Partners meet, and the document talks about them, but no file here lists who they are.

Where the numbers in this chapter come from

  1. 4,371 of them are 3GPP meetings, from 1998-12-07 to 2028-06-13 rows in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP'; the span is the earliest and latest start date among them, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04. The latest dates are meetings already scheduled, not meetings held
  2. 27 3GPP bodies hold a meeting series of their own distinct body names starting '3GPP' in table `meetings`; the list is every one of them, smallest included, because only the larger ones get an entry of their own in this register, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  3. 331 3GPP meetings were held in 2024 and 2025 meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  4. 86,887 delegate registrations were recorded across them the sum of Registeredf2f and RegisteredOnline over meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04. One person registering for eight meetings is eight registrations
  5. 213,886 documents were filed to them the sum of DocCount over meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  6. 21 3GPP bodies held at least 4 meetings in 2024 and 2025 bodies with 4 or more meetings in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31; below that a middle meeting says nothing, so no such body is counted here, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  7. 3GPP RAN 4 held 15 meetings in 2024 and 2025 meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31 where the body name is '3GPP RAN 4', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  8. 541 delegates registered for the middle 3GPP RAN 4 meeting the middle value of Registeredf2f plus RegisteredOnline over the 15 meetings of '3GPP RAN 4' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31; where two sit in the middle the lower is taken, so the figure is one a real meeting had, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  9. 3,079 documents were filed to the middle 3GPP RAN 4 meeting the middle value of DocCount over the 15 meetings of '3GPP RAN 4' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31, taken the same way as the delegate figure, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  10. 3GPP SA 2 held 16 meetings in 2024 and 2025 meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31 where the body name is '3GPP SA 2', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  11. 453 delegates registered for the middle 3GPP SA 2 meeting the middle value of Registeredf2f plus RegisteredOnline over the 16 meetings of '3GPP SA 2' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31; where two sit in the middle the lower is taken, so the figure is one a real meeting had, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  12. 1,694 documents were filed to the middle 3GPP SA 2 meeting the middle value of DocCount over the 16 meetings of '3GPP SA 2' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31, taken the same way as the delegate figure, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  13. 3GPP RAN 2 held 13 meetings in 2024 and 2025 meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31 where the body name is '3GPP RAN 2', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  14. 702 delegates registered for the middle 3GPP RAN 2 meeting the middle value of Registeredf2f plus RegisteredOnline over the 13 meetings of '3GPP RAN 2' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31; where two sit in the middle the lower is taken, so the figure is one a real meeting had, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  15. 1,617 documents were filed to the middle 3GPP RAN 2 meeting the middle value of DocCount over the 13 meetings of '3GPP RAN 2' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31, taken the same way as the delegate figure, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  16. 3GPP RAN 1 held 14 meetings in 2024 and 2025 meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31 where the body name is '3GPP RAN 1', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  17. 1,092 delegates registered for the middle 3GPP RAN 1 meeting the middle value of Registeredf2f plus RegisteredOnline over the 14 meetings of '3GPP RAN 1' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31; where two sit in the middle the lower is taken, so the figure is one a real meeting had, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  18. 1,600 documents were filed to the middle 3GPP RAN 1 meeting the middle value of DocCount over the 14 meetings of '3GPP RAN 1' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31, taken the same way as the delegate figure, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  19. 3GPP SA 5 held 17 meetings in 2024 and 2025 meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31 where the body name is '3GPP SA 5', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  20. 203 delegates registered for the middle 3GPP SA 5 meeting the middle value of Registeredf2f plus RegisteredOnline over the 17 meetings of '3GPP SA 5' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31; where two sit in the middle the lower is taken, so the figure is one a real meeting had, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  21. 912 documents were filed to the middle 3GPP SA 5 meeting the middle value of DocCount over the 17 meetings of '3GPP SA 5' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31, taken the same way as the delegate figure, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  22. 3GPP CT 1 held 13 meetings in 2024 and 2025 meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31 where the body name is '3GPP CT 1', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  23. 231 delegates registered for the middle 3GPP CT 1 meeting the middle value of Registeredf2f plus RegisteredOnline over the 13 meetings of '3GPP CT 1' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31; where two sit in the middle the lower is taken, so the figure is one a real meeting had, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  24. 907 documents were filed to the middle 3GPP CT 1 meeting the middle value of DocCount over the 13 meetings of '3GPP CT 1' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31, taken the same way as the delegate figure, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  25. 3GPP SA 3 held 29 meetings in 2024 and 2025 meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31 where the body name is '3GPP SA 3', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  26. 61 delegates registered for the middle 3GPP SA 3 meeting the middle value of Registeredf2f plus RegisteredOnline over the 29 meetings of '3GPP SA 3' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31; where two sit in the middle the lower is taken, so the figure is one a real meeting had, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  27. 145 documents were filed to the middle 3GPP SA 3 meeting the middle value of DocCount over the 29 meetings of '3GPP SA 3' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31, taken the same way as the delegate figure, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  28. 3GPP SA 4 held 70 meetings in 2024 and 2025 meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31 where the body name is '3GPP SA 4', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  29. 32 delegates registered for the middle 3GPP SA 4 meeting the middle value of Registeredf2f plus RegisteredOnline over the 70 meetings of '3GPP SA 4' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31; where two sit in the middle the lower is taken, so the figure is one a real meeting had, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  30. 16 documents were filed to the middle 3GPP SA 4 meeting the middle value of DocCount over the 70 meetings of '3GPP SA 4' in meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31, taken the same way as the delegate figure, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  31. 685 specifications carry the group code S5 rows in table `spec` where wg='S5', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  32. 458 specifications carry the group code R4 rows in table `spec` where wg='R4', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  33. 343 specifications carry the group code S3 rows in table `spec` where wg='S3', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  34. 321 specifications carry the group code S2 rows in table `spec` where wg='S2', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  35. 303 specifications carry the group code S4 rows in table `spec` where wg='S4', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  36. 256 specifications carry the group code S1 rows in table `spec` where wg='S1', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  37. 237 specifications carry the group code C1 rows in table `spec` where wg='C1', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  38. 236 specifications carry the group code C4 rows in table `spec` where wg='C4', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  39. 200 specifications carry the group code RP rows in table `spec` where wg='RP', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  40. 3,599 specifications are marked still maintained rows in table `spec` where active='yes', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  41. 329 specifications are marked no longer maintained rows in table `spec` where active='no', read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  42. 1,629,643 meeting documents recorded rows in table `tdoc` of the pygppe meeting-document database, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  43. 53,714 of those registrations ended with a presence recorded the sum of Participantsf2f and ParticipantsOnline over meetings in table `meetings` whose body name starts '3GPP' and whose start date falls between 2024-01-01 and 2025-12-31, read from /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite on 2026-08-04. The calendar records presence separately from registration, and some bodies barely record it at all

Every source this course is built on

Check yourself

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

Q2.1 What is a Working Group, in the document's own definition?

Q2.2 What is the Support Team, also called the Mobile Competence Centre?

Q2.3 Which of these must every 3GPP specification have?

Q2.4 The catalogue records 685 specifications under the group code S5. May a chapter say that means SA5?

Q2.5 Which of these is the best single sign that a 3GPP group is carrying a lot of work?

Q2.6 The meeting calendar's last CT entry is in 2028. What does that tell you?

This chapter was written against TR 21.900 version 20.0.0, and built from a source register generated 2026-08-04. A newer version of the document may say something else.