Development of GSM Technology The idea of the first cellular network was brainstormed in 1947.

It was intended to be used for military purposes as a way of supplying troops with more advanced forms of communications. From 1947 till about 1979 several different forms of broadcasting technology emerged. The United States began to develop the AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service) network, while European countries were developing their own forms of communication. Europeans quickly realized the disadvantages of each European country operating on their mobile network. Rectifying the situation the Conference of European Posts and Telegraphs(CEPT) assembled a research group with intentions of researching the mobile phone system in Europe. This group was called Group Special Mobile (GSM).For the next ten years the GSM group outlined standards, researched technology and designed a way to implement a pan-European mobile phone network. The acronym GSM had been changed from Group Special Mobile to Global Systems Mobile Telecommunications. By April of 1991 commercial service of the GSM network had begun. Just a year and half later in 1993 there were already 36 GSM networks in over 22 countries. Most of the world external to the United States uses GSM technology. However, operate on different frequencies. There are five major GSM frequencies that have become standard worldwide. They includeGSM-900, GSM-1800, GSM-850, GSM-1900 and GSM-400.Today GSM is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world. Its promoter, the GSM Association, estimates that 82% of the global mobile market uses the standard. GSM is used by over 2 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories. GSM differs from its predecessors in that both signaling and speech channels are digital call quality, and thus is considered a second generation (2G) mobile phone system. The map on the next page shows the wide

usage of the GSM technology all over the world.

Fig. 2.1 The Subscriber Identity Module, commonly known as a SIM card, is a key feature of GSM. The SIM is a detachable smart card containing the user's subscription information and phonebook. This allows the user to retain his information after switching handsets.

Fig. 2.2 GSM also pioneered a low-cost alternative to voice calls, the Short message service (SMS, also called "text messaging"), which is now supported on other mobile standards as well.

2.2 Short Message Service (SMS) Short Message Service (SMS) is a communications protocol allowing the interchange of short text messages between mobile telephone devices. The first SMS message was sent over the Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom on 3 December 1992, from Neil Pap worth of Air wide Solutions (using a personal computer) to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone (using an Orbital 901 handset). The text of the message was "Merry Christmas".The first SMS typed on a GSM phone is claimed to have been sent byRiku Pihkonen, an engineering student at Nokia, in 1993.The maximum single text message size is either 160 7bit characters, 140 8-bitcharacters, or 70 16-bit characters.Larger content (Concatenated SMS, multipart or segmentedSMS or "long sms") can be sent using multiple messages