In 1982, the Conference of European Posts and Telegraphs (CEPT) formed a study group to define and develop a pan-European standard for a mobile telephone system. This group was given the name Groupe Special Mobile (GSM). The main task of this group was to propose a system to overcome inherent issues faced by the analog system existing at that time. The new system had to meet criteria defined by CEPT as given below:
■ Spectrum efficiency
■ Support for international roaming
■ Lower cost of mobiles, infrastructure, and services
■ Superior speech quality
■ Support for a range of new services
■ Compatibility with ISDN
Later, the study group was transferred to the European Telecommunication Standard Institute (ETSI), which released phase 1 of the GSM specification in 1990. The term GSM now means Global System for Mobile Communication. The GSM standard, which was initially developed for Europe, has been embraced worldwide. The standard has been evolving since then to meet demands of next generation networks.
GSM is feature rich. It includes automatic roaming, full voice and data services, excellent speech quality, and a wide range of supplementary services.
