World Telecommunication Day 1999 |
Global System for Mobile (GSM) is the world's most popular mobile technology, with more than 200 million subscribers in 133 countries on 347 networks. The number of subscribers could well surpass 250 million by the end of this year, industry experts predict. Michael Stocks, chairman of the GSM Association, has an explanation for much of its success. ''If you own a GSM phone,'' he says, ''you can use it anywhere that has a GSM network, so long as your home operator is informed of the fact, and the operator in the country you are visiting has a so-called roaming agreement in place with the home operator.'' In Europe, one can make and receive GSM phone calls on one's own phone and number anywhere from the West of Ireland to Vladivostok.
While GSM is ubiquitous in Europe and deployed across much of Asia, a number of Arab states and South Africa, it has only 3 million subscribers in the United States, most of whom are concentrated on the East and West coasts. This means that while they can roam internationally, there is no seamless, national coverage for GSM users. More than 60 million Americans use the digital standards known as D-AMPS/TDMA (Digital Advanced Mobile Phone System or Time Division Multiple Access), CDMA or analog phones. Coverage tends to be spotty, and there is no single, contiguous coverage with any of the systems.
Third-generation mobile networks will start to appear in 2002 or 2003, according to Tim Kelly of the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva, which will allow global roaming for data and text as well as voice, but steps are already being taken to improve the situation between existing networks.
Dominic Strowbridge of Motorola has long been involved in the development of phones that can work on different frequencies. Motorola launched a dual-band GSM phone in 1997 that can work on either of the two frequencies used by GSM in Europe, 900 or 1800MHz. Motorola has now pioneered a so-called tri-band phone, which can operate at both the European frequencies as well as at 1900MHz, which is what GSM runs on in the United States.
Mr. Strowbridge says: ''We have hopes that GSM might have a national footprint in the United States in the next two to three years.'' In the meantime, he notes, great efforts are being made by the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium (UWCC), which represents the D-AMPS community and the GSM Association, to bridge the gap between their networks, both of which are based on TDMA technology.
Mr. Strowbridge considers it may still be at least three years before TDMA and CDMA capability reside in the same handset, coinciding with the appearance of the first third-generation networks, but these will not have national coverage for a long time, giving dual-mode phones a window of several years.
Another solution to the mobile incompatibility network and patchy coverage is mobile phones that use satellite communications. Although mobile satellite communications are often thought of in the context of developing countries, Peter Bacon, director of regional marketing with Globalstar Limited Partnership, points out that it is an ideal solution anywhere that it is uneconomic to roll out a cellular network, which includes large areas of the United States as well as continents such as Australia and Africa.
Globalstar's partners include France Telecom, Alcatel, Space Systems/Loral, QualComm and Vodafone Airtouch. It has signed agreements with service providers to market its services in 100 countries around the world. Starting this autumn, service will be available in North America and parts of Central and South America, as well as in Europe, Russia, China, South Africa and South Korea.
Mr. Bacon explains: ''Our GSM/satellite phone tries to act like a normal GSM phone first, but if there is no network available, then it resorts to the satellite, for which it has an extendable aerial. Through our partnership with QualComm, we are working on a tri-band phone that can use CDMA, D-AMPS and satellite and, in the longer term, around 2005 we think, our second-generation satellite technology will converge with third-generation mobile.''
Annie Turner