Like a cat with full jaws and claws, GSM technology does not need to proclaim its strengths. The numbers tell the story.
Up to 1.18 billion subscribers place and receive calls over GSM networks around the world, almost 10 times the next-largest competitor, CDMA technology.
The protocol has been upgraded to GPRS and EDGE, and is enjoying the early prosperity of UMTS technology. Backed by 217 operators around the world and 591 varieties of handsets, GSM’s closest competitor can only content itself with second place, at least in the near future.
But 3G Americas, one of the technology’s advocacy bodies, is not content to let the standard rest on its laurels. In a new report titled, “The Business Opportunity for Consumer Applications,” 3G Americas is drawing attention to what the protocol is doing in the consumer space with developers, infrastructure players, carriers and handsets.
And it’s not just about voice, but the almighty data.
“Coupled with powerful devices, the GSM family of technologies is enabling a wide variety of applications with large numbers of consumers starting to utilize them,” said Chris Pearson, president of 3G Americas. GSM’s advantage comes from its economies of scale and the nationwide reach of EDGE technology, Pearson touted.
The applications tack on to make it almost above challenge in providing services for its multitude of subscribers, he said.
“The market has changed in the last five years,” he said, adding industry has advanced from mere short message service and global positioning system applications to high-bandwidth applications fueled by EDGE and UMTS networks.
Since most users own GSM handsets, the developer community responds to pressure to provide GSM-friendly applications from games to ringtones to music downloads to pictures and other multimedia offerings.
The technology, however, is still coming to grips with fundamental industry challenges like throughput, latency, connection stability and usage costs, said the study.
Although next-generation networks are looking to match the speeds of DSL and cable, GSM throughput still lags behind, although GSM trumps dial-up speeds.
The report admits that its latency falls short of wireline offerings, although sending a text message using an EDGE network takes 300 to 500 milliseconds.
“To optimize their user experience, the application should minimize the amount of back-and-forth traffic on local data stores, and caching whenever possible,” said the report.
Regarding devices, the study says developers face the hurdle of making designs for all handsets on the market. “The lowest denominator approach accommodates the greatest variety of devices, but cannot take advantage of more advanced features,” said the report, adding that Subscriber Identity Module cards can reach all subscribers, although they remain limited in abilities.
The study also addresses digital rights management in terms of content providers that allow songs to be played only on specific handsets. This will restrict the distribution of such content within a narrow circle of users.
“Support for DRM is built into many mobile devices, but developers should check that their target devices support the desired specifications,” said 3G Americas, noting that groups such as the Open Mobile Alliance have addressed the question of handsets among their members.
The report said GSM applications can take advantage of value-added services from WAP gateways, billing systems such as e-wallet systems, DRM systems and location-based services.
“What services are available, how these are implemented, and what application interfaces are provided varies by operators, so developers must work with individual operators to take advantage of these services,” said the report.
Pearson also identified Java as a big advantage for GSM over other technologies. BREW is CDMA’s mainstay. Qualcomm Inc., however, has made BREW flexible for other bearer technologies. Java’s wireless Java 2 Micro Edition can be downloaded wirelessly during a WAP session or loaded from a connected PC via cable, infrared or Bluetooth, explained the report. But a challenge still lies ahead.
“Though J2ME provides a relatively standardized environment, developers still need to test their applications for selected target devices,” said 3G Americas.
