The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is an international collaboration involving telecommunications standards organizations dedicated to standardizing public mobile communication systems. Its founding Organizational Partners include representatives from Japan (ARIB and TTC), China (CCSA), Europe (ETSI), the United States (ATIS), and South Korea (TTA).

Initially, 3GPP’s primary objective was to establish a worldwide standard for UMTS, specifically the 3rd Generation Mobile System under the ITU’s IMT-2000 framework program. This is how the name ‘3GPP’ originated. The standardization process was built upon the evolved GSM core networks and the radio access technologies they supported, encompassing Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) in both Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) modes.

Over time, 3GPP broadened its scope to include the maintenance and development of the Global System for GSM, incorporating evolved radio access technologies like the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE). Subsequently, its mandate expanded further to encompass the development and upkeep of standards for the 4th generation (LTE) and 5th generation of mobile communications.