GSM History
a description of the development or history of GSM, Global System for
Mobile communications developed out of the original Groupe Special Mobile
pan_european system.
Today the GSM cell or mobile phone system is the most popular
in the world. GSM handsets are widely available at good prices and the networks
are robust and reliable. The GSM system is also feature-rich with applications
such as SMS text messaging, international roaming, SIM cards and the like. It is
also being enhanced with technologies including GPRS and EDGE. To achieve this
level of success has taken many years and is the result of both technical
development and international cooperation. The GSM history can be seen to be a
story of cooperation across Europe, and one that nobody thought would lead to
the success that GSM is today.
The first cell phone systems that were developed were
analogue systems. Typically they used frequency-modulated carriers for the voice
channels and data was carried on a separate shared control channel. When
compared to the systems employed today these systems were comparatively
straightforward and as a result a vast number of systems appeared. Two of the
major systems that were in existence were the AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone
System) that was used in the USA and many other countries and TACS (Total Access
Communications System) that was used in the UK as well as many other countries
around the world.
Another system that was employed, and was in fact the first
system to be commercially deployed was the Nordic Mobile Telephone system (NMT).
This was developed by a consortium of companies in Scandinavia and proved that
international cooperation was possible.
The success of these systems proved to be their downfall. The
use of all the systems installed around the globe increased dramatically and the
effects of the limited frequency allocations were soon noticed. To overcome
these a number of actions were taken. A system known as E-TACS or Extended-TACS
was introduced giving the TACS system further channels. In the USA another
system known as Narrowband AMPS (NAMPS) was developed.
New approaches
Neither of these approaches proved to be the long-term
solution as cellular technology needed to be more efficient. With the experience
gained from the NMT system, showing that it was possible to develop a system
across national boundaries, and with the political situation in Europe lending
itself to international cooperation it was decided to develop a new Pan-European
System. Furthermore it was realized that economies of scale would bring
significant benefits. This was the beginnings of the GSM system.
To achieve the basic definition of a new system a meeting was
held in 1982 under the auspices of the Conference of European Posts and
Telegraphs (CEPT). They formed a study group called the Groupe Special Mobile (
GSM ) to study and develop a pan-European public land mobile system. Several
basic criteria that the new cellular technology would have to meet were set down
for the new GSM system to meet. These included: good subjective speech quality,
low terminal and service cost, support for international roaming, ability to
support handheld terminals, support for range of new services and facilities,
spectral efficiency, and finally ISDN compatibility.
With the levels of under-capacity being projected for the
analogue systems, this gave a real sense of urgency to the GSM development.
Although decisions about the exact nature of the cellular technology were not
taken at an early stage, all parties involved had been working toward a digital
system. This decision was finally made in February 1987. This gave a variety of
advantages. Greater levels of spectral efficiency could be gained, and in
addition to this the use of digital circuitry would allow for higher levels of
integration in the circuitry. This in turn would result in cheaper handsets with
more features. Nevertheless significant hurdles still needed to be overcome. For
example, many of the methods for encoding the speech within a sufficiently
narrow bandwidth needed to be developed, and this posed a significant risk to
the project. Nevertheless the GSM system had been started.
Launch dates
Work continued and a launch date for the new GSM system of
1991 was set for an initial launch of a service using the new cellular
technology with limited coverage and capability to be followed by a complete
roll out of the service in major European cities by 1993 and linking of the
areas by 1995.
Meanwhile technical development was taking place. Initial
trials had shown that time division multiple access techniques offered the best
performance with the technology that would be available. This approach had the
support of the major manufacturing companies which would ensure that with them
on board sufficient equipment both in terms of handsets, base stations and the
network infrastructure for GSM would be available.
Further impetus was given to the GSM project when in 1989 the
responsibility was passed to the newly formed European Telecommunications
Standards Institute (ETSI). Under the auspices of ETSI the specification took
place. It provided functional and interface descriptions for each of the
functional entities defined in the system. The aim was to provide sufficient
guidance for manufacturers that equipment from different manufacturers would be
interoperable, while not stopping innovation. The result of the specification
work was a set of documents extending to more than 6000 pages. Nevertheless the
resultant phone system provided a robust, feature-rich system. The first roaming
agreement was signed between Telecom Finland and Vodafone in the UK. Thus the
vision of a pan-European network was fast becoming a reality. However this took
place before any networks went live.
The aim to launch GSM by 1991 proved to be a target that was
too tough to meet. Terminals started to become available in mid 1992 and the
real launch took place in the latter part of that year. With such a new service
many were sceptical as the analogue systems were still in widespread use.
Nevertheless by the end of 1993 GSM had attracted over a million subscribers and
there were 25 roaming agreements in place. The growth continued and the next
million subscribers were soon attracted.
Global usage
Originally GSM had been planned as a European system. However
the first indication that the success of GSM was spreading further a field
occurred when the Australian network provider, Telstra signed the GSM Memorandum
of Understanding.
Frequencies
Originally it had been intended that GSM would operate on
frequencies in the 900 MHz cellular band. In September 1993, the British
operator Mercury One-to-One launched a network. Termed DCS 1800 it operated at
frequencies in a new 1800 MHz band. By adopting new frequencies new operators
and further competition was introduced into the market apart from allowing
additional spectrum to be used and further increasing the overall capacity. This
trend was followed in many countries, and soon the term DCS 1800 was dropped in
favour of calling it GSM as it was purely the same cellular technology but
operating on a different frequency band. In view of the higher frequency used
the distances the signals travelled was slightly shorter but this was
compensated for by additional base stations.
In the USA as well a portion of spectrum at 1900 MHz was
allocated for cellular usage in 1994. The licensing body, the FCC, did not
legislate which technology should be used, and accordingly this enabled GSM to
gain a foothold in the US market. This system was known as PCS 1900 (Personal
Communication System).
A great success
With GSM being used in many countries outside Europe this
reflected the true nature of the name which had been changed from Groupe Special
Mobile to Global System for Mobile communications. The number of subscribers
grew rapidly and by the beginning of 2004 the total number of GSM subscribers
reached 1 billion. Attaining this figure was celebrated at the Cannes 3GSM
conference held that year. Figures continued to rise, reaching and then well
exceeding the 3 billion mark. In this way the history of GSM has shown it to be
a great success.
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