Evolution of Mobile Technology

GSM to 3G

Ashish Rajhansha

The History of GSM

1980 – Analogue Cellular Telephone Systems

Each country had own system (No compatibility)

1982 – CEPT – Groupe Spécial Mobile (GSM)

European Commission issued directives to reserve 900 MHz bandwidth to enable roaming.

1989 – GSM responsibility transferred to ETSI

ESTI defined GSM as internationally accepted digital cellular telephony standard

1990 – Phase I GSM specifications published

History Cont...

Mid 1991 – Commercial service started

1992 – First GSM network operator – Radiolinja

1993 – 36 GSM networks in 22 countries

Roaming agreement established between operators

1994 – 69 GSM networks

GSM – Global System for Mobile interaction

First network in Africa

1995 – GSM Phase II standardization

History Cont...

1996 – Pre paid SIM cards launched

1997 – First Dual Band GSM phone launched

1998 – Vodacom introduced free Voice mail

1999 – GPRS & WAP trials

Bluetooth specification v1.0 released

2000 – First GPRS network rolled out

2001- Popularity of SMS (16 billion messages)

Evolving Mobile Market & Technology

● Users increased by 20% since 2001●500,000 users being added each day

3G - Expected Costs (Compared to GSM)

WCDMA - 10 times as much traffic as compared to GSM

At cost premium of 1 to 1.5 times that of GSM

20% - 30% lower capital expenditure

60 % fewer sites required for base stations – initial voice coverage

40 % fewer sites required for base stations – data coverage

Key Aspects

Global Roaming – Key driver in massive global success of GSM (Interoperability between networks)

GSM handset models -

Around 600 handset models to choose from

More homogeneous frequency allocation as compared to CDMA

GPRS – A new business model for packet switched services

USIM

USIM - Security access, Virus intrusion, Customer profile, Authentication, Downloading etc.

Prepaid service activation & control

Information services

Directory services

Mobile banking

3G Revenue Growth

3G Service Evolution

Network Evolution

GSM evolution path to 3G

Terminals & Spectrum Development

Perceived PPS environment

Intrapsychic environment – Conceiving it.

Construction/Manufacturing environment – Feasibility

Adaptation environment – Salability

Use environment - Usability

Failure environment – Sustainability

Scrapping environment – Terminability

Political & Ecological environment

ConclusionPatterns of Innovation

GSM – Knight's move ?

Introduction of new unproven digital technology

GSM – to – 3G – More of the same ?

Builds on existing GSM technology

SMS – to – MMS – Passing over quantity over quality ?

Leading to ' infotrainment '