GSM Association
The GSM Association Governs Mobile Telephony
The GSM Association (GSMA) is an organization consisting of mobile phone operators and mobile handset makers and related companies who share the same passion for promoting and further developing the mobile phone systems under the GSM (Groupe Speciale Mobile) or Global System for Mobile standards. Representing the interests of about 800 network operators and handset manufacturers and suppliers across more than 200 countries worldwide, the GSMA is considered among the most influential and powerful trade aggregations in the world with enough clout to lobby governments anywhere on just about everything related to regulating the mobile phone industry and consumer businesses.
As a group, the GSMA unifies the various sectors in the mobile phone industry to drive new software and hardware development, usher in better telecommunication technologies and well harness the media and entertainment industries for emerging multimedia mobile experience with the sole purpose of creating and sustaining business growth for its members and the advancement of mobile telephone for consumers.
A Short GSM History
The GSMA had its roots in 1982 when the Confederation of European Posts and Telecommunications (CEPT) organized the GSMA with the purpose of designing and deploying a pan-European mobile telephony standard. It was not until 1989 that the GSM standards were complete and the first GSM networks deployed culminating with the first GSM call made in Finland in 1992. Its works didn’t end there but further enhancements to its 2G network saw the introduction of GPRS and EDGE and HSPA enhancements.
By 2005, the GSM technology dominates the mobile phone industry with more than 1.5 billion customers. The first HSDPA network goes live while SMS messages have surpassed the one trillion messages mark sent throughout the year.
The GSMA also sponsors the annual premiere industry trade show and conference called the Mobile World Congress annually held in Barcelona, Spain and the Mobile Asia Congress. Another one will be held in Hongkong this November. These two yearly events spaced months apart, are attended by the captains of the mobile phone industry and the press eagerly anticipating to catch new announcements related to new Mobile phones and emerging mobile technologies.
2G Technology
On Its Last Leg?
2G stands for 2nd generation wireless mobile phone technology. It was first commercially launched in Finland in 1991 on the GSM (Global System for Mobile) standard. It was at this time when mobile telephones first appeared in all bulk splendor. After it was introduced, the previous phone technology became known as 1G. In contrast with earlier first generation telephony standards, 2G allows digital encryption and were more efficient in terms of handling data over its channel spectrum that enabled the carriers greater mobile phone penetration.
Advantages of 2G
At the time it was introduced, 2G offered clear advantages over the older analog first generation telephone technology. Because it’s digital, you get the following:
- Compression and multiplexing of voice data can be done more effectively using various codecs and thus, allow more voice calls to be carried into the same carrier bandwidth; and
- Digital handsets emit less radio waves with the promise of smaller size which we see today compared with first generation mobile phones. For mobile phone carriers, going digital also meant lower equipment acquisition and maintenance cost.
There’s a downside to it at that time as well – something 2G proponents would be more silent about. Digital packets that carried voice data are an all or nothing proposition. Whereas you may still be able to understand your caller with static or weak reception in analog mobile system, your digital handset will experience more drop calls as weak digital transmission won’t register on the handset at all. So you hear nothing.
Evolving New Technologies
Looking back, 2G mobile networks were good at voice services with painfully slow data transfers. After 2G, the increasing popularity of mobile telephony has made great business sense to further improve its efficiency with the development of 2.5G services that was used in the meantime as mobile carriers were upgrading their 2G networks to 3G or WCDMA standards. Over the next few years, we expect the growing use of 4G networks.
