became a major standard for second gen- eration digital mobile communications all around the world. The European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization/European Committee for Standardization (CEN/CENELEC) is a joint organization for the standardization of information technology. It corresponds to IEC/ISO on a global level and it handles environmental and electromechanical aspects of telecommunications. The Conférence Européenne des Administrations des Postes et des Telecom- munications or European Conference of Posts and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) was doing the work of ETSI before the European Commission Green Paper opened competition in Europe within the tele- communications market. The deregulation of telecommunications forced national PTTs to become network operators equal to other new operators and they are not allowed to make standards alone any more. 1.5.4 American Organizations The U.S. national standards authority American National Standards Insti- tute has accredited several organizations to work for standards for telecom- munications. Some of these organizations are shown in Figure 1.6. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is one of the largest professional societies in the world and it has produced many impor- tant standards for telecommunications. Some of these standards, such as the standards for LANs, have been accepted by the ISO as international Introduction to Telecommunications Figure 1.6 American standards organizations. standards. For example, international standard ISO 8802.x for the Ethernet LAN family is currently the same as IEEE 802.x. The Electronic Industries Association (EIA) is an American organization of electronic equipment manufacturers. Many of its standards, such as those for connectors for personal computers, have achieved global acceptance. For example, the data interface standard EIA RS-232 is compatible with the V.24/28 recommendations of ITU-T. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is not actually a stan- dards body but a 