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Glossary

TAC (Type Approval Code) in 3GPP: meaning and where it is specified

Published 2026-10-16Updated 2026-10-16

At a glance

Term
TAC
Stands for
Type Approval Code
Defined in
3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4
Used in
TS 23.003, TS 29.571, TS 29.674

In plain words

In 3GPP TR 21.905, TAC means Type Approval Code, the glossary term. TS 23.003 says the Type Approval Code "is issued by a global administrator.". TS 29.674 uses TAC for Type Allocation Code, the first 8 digits in an IMEI or IMEISV.

Source: 3GPP TS 23.003 V20.1.0, clause 10.4.3. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/23_series/23.003/23003-k10.zip

Sources

  1. 3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/21_series/21.905/21905-j20.zip
  2. 3GPP TS 23.003 V20.1.0, clause 10.4.3. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/23_series/23.003/23003-k10.zip
  3. 3GPP TS 29.674 V19.0.0, clause 8.2.2. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/29_series/29.674/29674-j00.zip

How this page was made

The facts box comes straight from the 3GPP TDoc list and specification archive as indexed by 3GPP Scout. An AI model (GPT-6 Luna) wrote the paragraph and named the source of each sentence. Code checked every quote word for word against the stored source text and every number against the cited source. A second AI model from another company (Claude Opus 5.5) reviewed the paragraph against the same sources. The 3GPP documents themselves govern.