What is GSM?
If you are in Europe or Asia and using a mobile phone, then most probably you are using GSM technology in your mobile phone.
- GSM stands for Global System for Mobile Communication. It is a digital cellular technology used for transmitting mobile voice and data services.
- The concept of GSM emerged from a cell-based mobile radio system at Bell Laboratories in the early 1970s.
- GSM is the name of a standardization group established in 1982 to create a common European mobile telephone standard.
- GSM is the most widely accepted standard in telecommunications and it is implemented globally.
- GSM is a circuit-switched system that divides each 200 kHz
channel into eight 25 kHz time-slots. GSM operates on the mobile
communication bands 900 MHz and 1800 MHz in most parts of the world. In
the US, GSM operates in the bands 850 MHz and 1900 MHz.
- GSM owns a market share of more than 70 percent of the world's digital cellular subscribers.
- GSM makes use of narrowband Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technique for transmitting signals.
- GSM was developed using digital technology. It has an ability to carry 64 kbps to 120 Mbps of data rates.
- Presently GSM supports more than one billion mobile subscribers in more than 210 countries throughout the world.
- GSM provides basic to advanced voice and data services including
roaming service. Roaming is the ability to use your GSM phone number in
another GSM network.
- Mobile services based on GSM technology were first launched in Finland in 1991. Today, more than 690 mobile networks provide GSM services across 213 countries and GSM represents 82.4% of all global mobile connections. According to GSM World, there are now more than 2 billion GSM mobile phone users worldwide. GSM World references China as "the largest single GSM market, with more than 370 million users, followed by Russia with 145 million, India with 83 million and the USA with 78 million users."
- The following diagram shows the GSM network along with the added elements:
