ETSI has established a new technical committee to develop standards for integrating artificial intelligence, computing and connectivity across Cloud platforms, telecoms networks, Edge infrastructure and connected devices.
The committee, known as TC NET, held its first meeting at ETSI’s headquarters in Sophia Antipolis, France, from 7th to 9th October, bringing together more than 100 delegates from network operators, technology vendors, research institutes and academia.
Launched in June, TC NET aims to develop globally applicable standards for a federated digital infrastructure in which computing and AI resources can be coordinated across different environments. The goal is to allow intelligent services to run where they are needed, rather than remain tied to a single Cloud or network.
“TC NET will define how computing, connectivity and AI resources are federated across cloud, network, edge and devices, so that intelligent services can run wherever they are needed,” said Ricard Vilalta, Chair of ETSI TC NET.
The committee has established four working groups covering infrastructure and control across the Cloud-to-device continuum; services and access to those resources; agentic AI and autonomous networks; and harmonisation and validation across the wider ecosystem.
The work will address the challenge of making AI services operate across infrastructure supplied by different organisations, with common standards intended to support interoperability.
TC NET also discussed transferring relevant activities from four existing ETSI Industry Specification Groups into the new committee. These cover Experiential Networked Intelligence, Multi-access Edge Computing, Network Functions Virtualisation, and Zero-touch network and Service Management.
The move brings related standardisation activities under a single technical committee as AI and computing become more closely integrated with network infrastructure.
Representatives of the EURO-3C initiative also presented their interest in federating existing infrastructure and capabilities from telecoms operators and cloud providers, and discussed potential links with TC NET’s work.
Vilalta, of the Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC), was elected chair. The committee’s vice-chairs are Lucía Cabanillas Rodríguez of Telefónica, Yu Zeng of China Telecom, Yuya Kuno of DOCOMO Communications Laboratories, and Walter Featherstone of Apple.
TC NET will hold its next meeting at ETSI headquarters from 9th to 11th December 2026.
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