Tag: GSM telephony

GSM Mobile Telephony has now turned 20 this year

Article

GSM turns 20 today, still rocking the world — Engadget

My Comments

GSM Mobile telephony has now turned 20 this year and has become a technological milestone in itself as far as “on-the-go” mobile communication is concerned,

Here, this service had brought through a highly-reliable digital transmission system which could allow many users to use mobile phones in a given area. It had extended the mobile phone beyond voice towards data-driven activities like SMS text messaging and concurrent packet data transmission.

Infact SMS had even brought about a language of shorthand slang known as “textspeak” that ended up as part of email and instant-messaging culture as well and had made the pager redundant. Here, we now see teenagers and other young people working their phones to frantically tap out a message with one hand the moment they hear that phone beep to indicate a text had arrived. This technology had been taken further with MMS which allows photographs, audio or video clips to be sent this way.

The GPRS packet-data system has become the foundation stone of the mobile Internet, allowing for the phone to become an mobile email client and Web browser. This has been emphasised more with technologies like EDGE.

This technology has brought about cost-effective handsets and phone services with a sense of service portability through the use of SIM cards. Here, a person could upgrade to different handsets or “rope in” another handset like a loan phone to their service by transferring a SIM card between these handsets. It also allowed carriers in a competitive market to strut their stuff by offering service that is affordable to most people.

Infact GSM has mad the mobile phone become a mature ubiquitous technology that is available to all. It even has put the traditional landline phone and the payphone “on notice” as far as young users are concerned.

Therefore I would consider the GSM mobile telephone system a milestone to the connected lifestyle.

Happy 20th Birthday GSM Mobile Telephony