Genesis of an Open NonProrietary Global Standard for Mobile Communications
The Global System for Mobile Communications ...
... that is implemented today in 193 countries in the world and services 825 million subscribers capable of roaming seamlessly within that global system.
Groupe Speciale Mobile [1982]
It became clear to industry watchers that localised solutions to the development of mobile communications did not make long-term economic sense. Given the daunting R&D costs facing operators and manufacturers, it was essential to be able to exploit the economies of scale inherent in global market penetration. Home market revenue simply wouldn’t justify sustained programmes of investment.
If the new industry was to survive - let alone prosper - something had to be done. And fast. So let's hear it for the CEPT.
In the alphabet soup that is the communications industry, the CEPT merits a very special place in history. Back in 1982, the Conférence des Administrations Européenes des Postes et Télécommunications comprised the telecoms administrations of twenty-six European countries. Worthy, but not inherently exciting. However, this organisation’s decisive response to a Franco-German study detailing the problems facing the mobile communication industry was nothing short of visionary.
It's worth remembering that most of the CEPT’s membership were state monopolies used to considering national interest their prime objective. However, in this case their first step was to recognise that the new industry's economic future relied on hitherto unprecedented levels of pan-European co-operation. To this end, the CEPT established the Groupe Spéciale Mobile (GSM). Its objective was to develop the specification for a pan-European mobile communications network capable of supporting the many millions of subscribers likely to turn to mobile communications in the years ahead.
No one was in any doubt that establishing such a standard would be fraught with problems - technical, economic and logistical. However, it was equally clear that the rewards could be substantial and it was now obvious that the alternatives were likely to prove untenable.But above all else there was a genuine will to combine resources in order to achieve long-term success.
Digital Vision
"Although the final decision was not made until February 1987, a digital system was what we were all working towards for quite a few years." - Thomas Haug (Sweden) first Chairman of Groupe Spéciale Mobile -
It was all very well the commercial world recognising the imperative of a pan-European solution to mobile communications, but such an initiative was also going to require support from some political heavyweights. Fortunately, the CEPT's promotion of a unified system made sense to the powers that be and in 1984 the GSM project received the endorsement of the European Commission. This would have considerable implications in the years ahead.
In 1985, the growing commitment to resolving the crisis became evident when West Germany, France and Italy signed an agreement for the development of GSM. The United Kingdom added its name to the agreement the following year. By this time, CEPT’s Groupe Spéciale Mobile could argue persuasively that the standards they were developing held the key to a technically and economically viable solution.
From the start, the GSM had it in mind that the new standard was likely to employ digital rather than analogue technology and operate in the 900MHz frequency band.
[The decision to set aside 2x25 MHz at 900 MHz for common mobile communications in europe was actually made in 1978. 1800 MHz was added in 1990]
Digital technology offered an attractive combination of performance and spectral efficiency. In other words, it would provide high quality transmission and enable more callers simultaneously to use the limited radio band available. In addition, such a system would allow the development of advanced features like speech security and data communications.
By going digital, it would also be possible to employ very large scale integrated silicon technology. Just another acronym to outsiders, VLSI would have significant implications for both manufacturers and consumers. Handsets could be cheaper and smaller. It would also make it possible to introduce the first hand-held terminals - even though in the early days in terms of size and weight these would be practically indistinguishable from a brick.
By 1986 it became clear that there needed to be be a single, permanent organisation at the helm. This need was met when the GSM assumed overall responsibility for co-ordinating the development of the full GSM specification. In 1986 the GSM Permanent Nucleus was formed.
Stephen Temple of the UK's Department of Trade and Industry was charged with the task of drafting the first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). He was convinced that if the project were to have a future at least three countries would have to commit to deploying GSM technology by 1 July 1991. Such was the potency of the GSM vision that on 7 September 1987 network operators from thirteen countries signed a MoU in Copenhagen. There were 15 signatories in total: France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Ireland and, from the UK, two independent operators - Cellnet and Racal-Vodafone - as well as the DTI. services to establish their market identity and give them an edge in an increasingly competitive environment.
ETSI
In 1988 the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) was created to coordinate standardization activity for CEPT with a special focus on standardizing GSM. Unlike CEPT, ETSI included not just administrators, but industry vendors, user groups, and operators. In order to meet 1991 launch targets ETSI split GSM standards into 2 phases. GSM Phase 1 standards were first published in 1991.
The real launch of GSM took place in the latter part of 1992. Among the early runners were Denmark (two operators), Finland (two operators), France, Germany (two operators), Italy, Portugal (two operators) and Sweden (three operators). On 17 June 1992 the first roaming agreement was signed between Telecom Finland and Vodafone in the UK. The original vision of a single consolidated pan-European digital network that melted borders was fast becoming a reality.
Gone Global
By the end of 1993, GSM had broken through the 1 million subscriber barrier with the next million already on the horizon. The MoU now boasted 70 members from 48 countries and 25 roaming agreements had been signed, sealed and delivered. Perhaps most significant of all, the Australian company Telstra had added its name to the growing MoU membership. GSM was no longer an exclusively European phenomenon.
By June 1995, the MoU was formally registered as an Association in Switzerland. It now had 156 members serving 12 million customers in 86 countries. The same year saw the completion of the GSM Phase 2 standardisation and a demonstration of fax, video and data communication via GSM. It also produced an adaptation of PCS 1900 to meet the opportunities created by the recent FCC auction in the USA. In November 1995, American Personal Communications launched the first commercial GSM Phase 2 service in the US just a few months after APC had obtained its licence.
By May 1997, there were 15 PCS 1900 - now GSM 1900 - In November 1995, American Personal Communications launched the first commercial GSM service in the US a few months after APC had obtained its licence - By May 1997, there were 15 PCS 1900 - now GSM 1900 - networks live and commercial.
3GPP [1998 & 1999]
A Global standard needs a Global standards body and in 1999, ETSI began the process of transferring standardization activity for the GSM Platform to The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) which had been formed a year earlier to standardize 3GSM. The transfer was completed in 2000.
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Above materialy adapted from source GSMA material and Mouly and Pautet's classic, "The Global System for Mobile Communications."
- Eric - |
