Stephen Temple

GSM created the mobile phone revolution and has changed more lives on the planet than any other electronic development of the past 25 years. …yet it is the least well documented and least well understood piece of our recent digital age history.

That is a pity. There are important political, regulatory and strategic lessons to be learnt from Europe’s most successful high technology project.

For this reason a public record of the history of GSM is important. Some good references exist on the GSM standards making history. Whilst a common standard was a pre-condition for the success of GSM it does not explain why it succeeded. There were other technologies (or variants) around at the time that were just as good. There were also alternative technical standards emerging in other parts of the world.

So why the GSM success? And how did it ignite such a spectacular technical and social revolution?

To begin to address these questions I  have published an account I recorded in 1988 of the political history of GSM . It is largely from a UK perspective. Whilst the UK was only one of the partners in the GSM standardisation process, it was the leading EU Member State in the mobile regulatory revolution and also made a unique contribution to the industrial strategy through the intervention of the GSM MOU.

To down-load a free copy of this book or read it on-line click here:   www.gsmhistory.com