Overview

In the early 1980s, analog cellular telephony systems were rapidly growing in the European marketplace, particularly in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Scandinavia. In each country, the providers had developed their own internal operating systems to support this new mobile communications revolution. Unfortunately, these locally developed country systems were incompatible from system to system and country by country. Obviously, this was the least desirable of all situations for the introduction of a new system, leaving operators and users equally dissatisfied. Something had to be done to create a unified approach to the wireless networking and communications systems to bring them into harmony.

In 1982, the Conference of European Post and Telegraph (CEPT) created a study group to analyze what could be done. This study group was named Groupe Special Mobile (GSM). Their charter was to develop a system that would work across the European market. The systems they proposed had to be capable of meeting certain criteria such as the following:

• Good quality speech

• Low cost for the equipment

• Efficient use of RF spectrum

• Capable of supporting the newer handheld telephones

• Transparent roaming capabilities

• ISDN compatible

The committees did their job well, and quickly endorsed the standards and specifications to create a special mobile communications system capable of working across the international boundaries that had heretofore been blocked. These specifications were handed over to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in late 1989. In 1990, GSM specifications were published.