GsmAssociation posts
by Chris Ziegler 
posted Aug 27th 2009 @ 5:22PM
by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 26th 2009 @ 8:01PM
by Nilay Patel posted Feb 23rd 2009 @ 9:26AM
by Donald Melanson posted Feb 17th 2009 @ 3:51PM
Well, this is certainly interesting. Just a couple of days after a top European Union commissioner mused about the need for a universal cellphone charger, the GSM Association has now come out and announced that it and 17 of its partner companies are indeed working on such a solution, and that they plan to have a common format in place by 2012. That rather ambitious date will be a bit easier to meet considering the group's choice of connector, micro-USB, which has already gained quite a bit of acceptance as a common format. The use of micro-USB apparently won't be firm requirement by 2012, however, with the GSMA simply saying that the "majority" of new phones sold by then will support what they're describing as the universal charging solution (or UCS), which itself will have to meet a number of strict requirements in order to be broadly compatible. Of course, while everyone including the likes of Nokia, Motorola, LG, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson have signed on with the GSMA, there are a few big names absent, not the least of which, unsurprisingly, is Apple, so there's certainly still quite a ways to go before we have a truly universal standard.by Darren Murph posted Nov 21st 2008 @ 11:59AM
The GSM Association has been gung-ho about near-field communications (NFC) for a good while now, but just recently at a meeting in Macau did it take the opportunity to officially proclaim its support for NFC and Carrier ENUM. As for the former, it's urging manufacturers to have NFC technology (which is most commonly used for mobile payment systems) in "mainstream mobile phones by mid-2009 by using the standardized single wire protocol (SWP) interface, which enables communications between NFC hardware and a SIM card." Furthermore, it gave a hearty thumbs-up to ENUM (previously known as Number Resolution Service), which is an IETF-sanctioned standard for converting traditional phone numbers into IP addresses. It also announced that a related service (dubbed PathFinder) was generally available to mobile and fixed network operators from NeuStar. All this sounds fine and dandy, but what we're really interested in is what these folks did in Macau after the business was settled. Lucky...by Darren Murph posted Nov 15th 2007 @ 2:21PM
Chalk up another one for the LTE team, as it has yet another big proponent in the ever-raging 4G war. Not even two months after Verizon gave LTE the nod over WiMAX / UMB, the board of the GSM Association has now voted to support Long Term Evolution as the mobile broadband solution to follow HSPA. The GSMA also noted that it would be interfacing with other outfits / organizations that are developing LTE technology and begin work with the NGMN (Next Generation Mobile Networks) initiative. Furthermore, Rob Conway, the entity's CEO, reportedly called on the International Telecommunication Union to "ensure the industry wins the spectrum needed to offer mobile broadband." 'Course, we've already heard that things are shaping up nicely (in testing) for the standard, but winning over the GSMA is likely to incite some serious celebrating in the offices of LTE backers everywhere.by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 14th 2007 @ 8:02AM
by Chris Ziegler posted May 29th 2007 @ 9:19AM
Look, we want the W999i slider to be real just as much as the next guy. And who wouldn't? It's a beautiful phone -- but it's also totally Photoshoppable, as is virtually anything these days. Lending a small semblance of credibility to the W999i rumors, though, is its recent appearance on the GSM Association's HSPA website. No details are offered, and clicking on the phone takes you to Sony Ericsson's home page (which has no comment whatsoever W999i's existence), but we've gotta figure that the GSMA cameo is a pretty good sign even though "W999i" kinda sounds like an internal codename to us. UIQ, QWERTY rocker keypad, hip styling, HSDPA, and Walkman branding? Count us in.by Chris Ziegler posted Apr 26th 2007 @ 9:15AM
With services like NTT DoCoMo's FeliCa-based Osaifu-Keitai in Japan and Mifare deployed through much of Europe, perhaps one of the last great hurdles to widespread acceptance of phone-based e-wallets is a lack of standardization. Either that, or most people don't feel the need to pay for things by tapping their phone on various devices, but we digress; the point is that the GSM Association has now taken up the cause of getting everyone on the same page with its global "Pay-Buy Mobile" initiative. We really mean global, too -- among a slew of carriers, AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, and KTF are on board, representing the US, Japan, Europe, and South Korea, respectively, and the manufacturer camp counts Nokia, Samsung, and LG as its members. The first Pay-Buy Mobile trials are schedule to kick off this October, a schedule that is probably helped along by the availability of existing software and chips from Sony and NXP and the GSMA's pledge to build off financial institutions' existing NFC initiatives. We can't promise we'll use it -- but yeah, if it's secure, go ahead and build it into our phones, folks.by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 14th 2006 @ 7:08AM
Twelve years for the first billion users, two and a half years for the second billion. Those are the staggering statistics being flaunted by the GSM Association this week as they prepare to sign up their two billionth customer, driving home the exponential growth mobile carriers worldwide have enjoyed as of late. Although China represents by far the largest single user base with over 370 million, Latin America and the Caribbean brought their "A" game last year, holding the titles for largest subscriber growth rate (97%) thanks to numerous carriers selecting GSM as their CDMA / TDMA upgrade path. So, how many peeps worldwide are toting cellphones, regardless of technology? According to the GSMA, there are 2.29 billion, making GSM the overwhelming standard of choice; we're guessing you can figure out who slots in at number two.
