Development of digital mobile telephony

from 1988 to 2000

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, a new field of electrical engineering emerged: digital signal processing. In this field, signals are analyzed and manipulated in the form of numbers. By the end of the 1980s, technology had progressed enough to make digital signal processing practical in applications. Speech coding in particular made it possible to create more capacity for transmission. See Technology 1990 – 2000.

In 1988, a new mobile communications standard was developed and standardized in Europe. This complete digital cellular network was called GSM. It was rolled out in Europe from 1992 onwards. At the same time in the United States, mobile communication systems were also modified to take advantage of digital signal processing . First, in 1992, the so-called digital AMPS appeared, that was standardized under IS-54 Digital AMPS. A few years later CDMAOne in 1995 appeared. CDMA was an advanced new methodology for transmission that was brought onto the market by a company called Qualcomm and was standardized as IS-95 CDMA.

Over the course of the 1990s, the technology for digital mobile communications, especially in semiconductors, developed rapidly, allowing smaller and lighter devices. Smaller, lighter, cheaperr

The mobile phone boom reached its first peak in 2000. Mobile Phone Boom of the 1990s

The new 2G mobile phone systems had dramatical impact on the young communication industry. In Europe new mobile phone operators appeared. At least two operators were active in each country. In the US, a large consolidation took place. From hundreds of local operators toward have a dozen nation wide operators. A lot of manufacturers of mobile phones could no longer compete in a global market. A lot of manufacturers disappeared or stepped out of the market while the big three: Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola dominated the scene. 2G Telecommunication Industry.

Parallel to the terrestrial mobile phone systems, satellite-based systems where created ass well and went into operation towards the end of the millennium. Also those systems were digital comparable to GSM and CDMA. However, they proved to be far less successful.

In order to understand the 2G systems, an overview of the principles of digital signal processing and digital modulation is given. See:Digital Signal Processing and Digital Modulation.

Afterwards, the details of the GSM standard will be discussed, including an overview of the new, complex air interface. GSM Air Interface

In addition to GSM, the American standards for 2G are discussed. On the one hand, IS-54 Digital AMPS and, above all, the advanced CDMA standard from Qualcomm IS-95 CDMA.