GSM cellular turns twenty

By Stuart Corner
Friday, 07 September 2007 17:14

Opinion and Analysis

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the 'birth' of the GSM digital cellular standard: its introduction into Australia took place in parallel with the introduction of competition - and was fiercely opposed by Telstra.

Twenty years ago today (7 September 1987) an historic agreement was signed in Copenhagen by 15 telecommunications operators from 13 countries that led to the development of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) digital cellular standard. The acronym initially stood for Groupe Speciale Mobile - it was 'globalised' some years later.

That agreement laid the foundation for the first Europe-wide digital cellular system, which soon became the world's first global mobile system as used by more than 700 mobile operators and served by thousands of suppliers today. The agreement also triggered a technology evolution path that continues today with the roll-out of more than 120 mobile broadband networks in 61 countries.

"The 1987 agreement is widely regarded as the foundation of today's global mobile phone industry and the birth of one of the greatest technological achievements of our age," said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA, the global trade association for mobile operators. "The early vision of our industry created international cooperation on an unprecedented scale that has led to a socio-economic revolution benefiting people, businesses and countries throughout the world."

According to Sir Christopher Gent, one of the original signatories of the agreement and former CEO of Vodafone, "GSM is the single most important agreement in the history of telecommunications," "With 2.5 billion users around the world today, it has done more to bridge the digital divide than any other innovation, and is a tremendous example of global cooperation."