Evolution of Global System

The Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) standard was intended to address many problems directly related to compatibility, especially with the development of digital radio technology. Throughout the evolution of cellular telecommunications, various systems had been developed without the benefit of standardized specifications.

From 1982 to 1985 discussions were held to decide between building an analog or digital system. After multiple field tests, a digital system was adopted for GSM. The next task was to decide between a narrow or broadband solution. In May 1987, the narrowband Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) solution was chosen.

Today, GSM technology is in use by more than one in six of the world's population and it is estimated that at the end of Jan 2004 there were over 1 billion GSM subscribers across more than 200 countries of the world.

The evolution of GSM continues with high bandwidth services already becoming available through second-generation technologies. The development path to 3GSM is clearly mapped out and brings with it the possibilities of sophisticated data and multimedia applications. The GSM standard will continue to evolve with wireless, satellite and cordless systems offering greatly expanded services. These will include high speed, multimedia data services, inbuilt support for parallel use of such services and seamless integration with the Internet and wire line networks.