GSM Technology Turns 20

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

My wife would say it was the beginning of the end of being able to read a book on BART or any other means of public transit - without constant chatter, some of it rudely loud - in your ear. Others would say it was the beginning of a huge recycling problem (see above). Still others would say it was the beginning of a global revolution. Whatever your view, on this date in 1987 15 phone firms signed an agreement to build mobile networks based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communications.

Robert Conway, head of the GSM Association, said the memorandum of understanding signed in 1987 is widely seen as the moment when the global mobile industry got under way.

Although work on the GSM technical specifications began earlier, the agreement signed in 1987 committed those operators to building networks based upon it. Source: BBC News

We Say: GSM is obviously the worldwide cellular technology leader in terms of numbers, with 2.5 billion GSM accounts worldwide. They still haven’t managed to sign up my in-laws, though, to either GSM or CDMA.