The Detailed Specification Work Leading to the GSM Phase 1 Standard used for the Opening of Service (1987–1991) Thomas Haug 1 Mid-1987 was a milestone in the work of GSM. I think everybody in the group felt, despite what they might have felt earlier, that the agreement on the basic parameters in the air interface marked the turning point in the work. Another very important event took place in 1987 after years of preparations, . the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed by – initially – 14 operators who made a firm commitment to implement the system by 1991 | GSM and UMTS The Creation of Global Mobile Communication Edited by Friedhelm Hillebrand Copyright 2001 John Wiley Sons Ltd ISBNs 0-470-84322-5 Hardback 0-470-845546 Electronic Chapter 3 The Detailed Specification Work Leading to the GSM Phase 1 Standard used for the Opening of Service 1987-1991 Thomas Haug1 Mid-1987 was a milestone in the work of GSM. I think everybody in the group felt despite what they might have felt earlier that the agreement on the basic parameters in the air interface marked the turning point in the work. Another very important event took place in 1987 after years of preparations . the Memorandum of Understanding MoU signed by -initially - 14 operators who made a firm commitment to implement the system by 1991. This is described by Stephen Temple Chapter 2 section 4 and I shall not go into it here. Suffice it to say that without a commitment on the part of the operators along those lines there would hardly ever have been a GSM system in the real world only on paper simply because the manufacturers would never have dared to invest the huge sums in hard- and software work required to implement the system. The first set of specifications or Recommendations as we used to call them at that time keeping in line with the ITU and CEPT terminology used for tendering is seen in the document GSM 31 88 in the acompanying CD-ROM. Another example of our intention to make the work better known was the Hagen seminar in October 1988 as seen in the documents GSM 187 87 and GSM 120 88. This activity is covered in Philippe Dupuis s chapter and I need not go into details here. One change in the work rules of CEPT was very beneficial to GSM. Originally CEPT had always worked as a very closed organisation not open to outside bodies and its results were not made public although they often leaked out . Therefore many CEPT standards were known to the manufacturers only if a PTT wanted to use a particular standard in connection with a contract for delivery of .
