10 September 2007
Important technology behind the global growth of the mobile phone has recently celebrated its 20th anniversary.
The Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communications was launched on September 7th 1987 with the backing of 15 mobile phone companies.
This day is widely regarded as the birth of the modern day mobile phone worldwide, as mobile phone firms signed a memorandum of understanding promising to build phones on GSM technical specifications.
The GSM family of technologies currently accounts for 85% of the global mobile services market, representing around 1.6% of global GDP.
Robert Conway, Head of the GSM Association, said: "The early vision of our industry created international cooperation on an unprecedented scale that has led to a socio-economic revolution benefiting people, businesses and countries throughout the world."
Sir Christopher Gent, one of the original signatories of the agreement and former Chief Executive of Vodafone added: "GSM is the single most important agreement in the history of telecommunications.
"With 2.5 billion users around the world today, it has done more to bridge the digital divide than any other innovation, and is a tremendous example of global cooperation."
According to figures from the GSM Association, the mobile communications industry today serves more than 2.5 billion people across 218 countries and territories.