TL 9000 Category Tables
The Category Tables are Appendix A of the TL 9000 Measurements Handbook.
The Category Tables define a standard set of categories for the reporting of TL 9000 data. As the TL 9000 standard is adopted in more departments of telecom service providers and in the supply chain, it is frequently necessary to update these tables to include additional products. The tables are updated every 9-18 months, each update is approved by the TIA QuEST Forum membership and becomes part of the TL 9000 standard.
Each update is assigned a release number and is effective for a fixed period. The effective date applies to the date of the data being submitted and not the date of the data submission. For example, if a data submission is made in January 2022 for December 2021 data, the data submission is made under the definitions contained in Category Table 5.7 because Category Table 5.8 isn't effective until January 2022 data.
When a new category table is released, TL 9000 registrants have six months to implement the rules in the new table. They can also use the table immediately on release which means that there are two tables in effect over the six months period.
New releases usually do not impact existing registrations and their data submissions. Even though the category classifications are relatively static, category definitions do sometime change so TL 9000 registrants should carefully examine each new release to see if the changes impact their registration. Each release is accompanied by a short paper describing the changes from the prior release of the tables.
See the table below to choose the category table release that applies to your data. Note that data older than two years is not submitted nor resubmitted under TL 9000 so category tables older than two years are obsolete and cannot be used.
NOTE: When two category table releases are valid for data submission, data is submitted under only one of the category table releases. The system will not allow data to be submitted under both releases. As soon as data is submitted under the newest release the older release is no longer available to use with new data submissions.
| Release | Earliest Date of Data | Last Date of Data | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category Table Release 5.8
(PDF,1.39MB)
Change History for PCT 5.8 (PDF,32KB) |
January 2022 | TBD | In use Jan 2022 |
| Category Table Release 5.7
(PDF,1.88MB)
Change History for PCT 5.7 (PDF,70KB) |
July 2020 | May 2022 | Obsolete Jun 2022 |
| Category Table Release 5.6
(PDF,1.97MB)
Change History for PCT 5.6 (PDF,66KB) |
July 2019 | November 2020 | Resubmissions only |
| Category Table Release 5.5
(PDF,2.21MB)
Change History for PCT 5.5 (PDF,126KB) |
July 2017 | November 2019 | Resubmissions only |
Older versions of the Category Tables are now obsolete, but are archived and still available for reference.