You’ve always wanted to take that trip to Europe, but were never willing to lose contact with the office for long periods of time. With a GSM phone, you can be lying on the beach along the French Riviera and your assistant in Pittsburgh can call you on your phone without the hassle of foreign operators or rude hotel clerks.
GSM-Global System for Mobile communications-is the standard digital technology in Europe. In the United States, GSM competes with the other two digital technologies, CDMA and TDMA.
“GSM phones simplify data connections to laptops and palmtops,” says Mike Houghton, spokesperson for GSM Alliance, a consortium of GSM operators and manufacturers in North America. “GSM phones also have integrated voicemail, data and paging.”
The phones have a computer chip known as a “smart card.” This chip stores all the information about the phone, including billing and programming information, personal phone numbers and missed calls. If you miss a call, the press of a button will dial the last caller.
“This gives you the ability to exchange the card out of one phone and put it into another without losing your features,” says Houghton. “I have two phones, and just take the chip out of one phone and put it into the other so that way when I’m on a trip, I’m not caught without a phone.”
Why GSM?
- Can be used in 129 countries. Some phones may require an additional chip before being used in Europe, but Bosch offers the World phone that can be used both in the United States and the rest of the world.
- Data friendly. GSM is a digital PCS phone, allowing for voicemail, data and paging.
- Smart cards. Smart chip can be transferred between phones and stores billing and programming information.
- Digital technology. Better security and clarity than analog phones.
GSM stats
- 130 million GSM customers in the world
- 2.3 million users in North America
- 129 countries have GSM service
- 42 states, the District of Columbia and four Canadian provinces have GSM service
- 2,400 cities in North America have GSM service
- GSM customers are signing up at the rate of 148 an hour
- Coverage areas reach 55 percent of the U.S. population
- GSM has created 12,000 new jobs directly, and associated jobs-accessories etc.- account for another 40,000
- GSM is in more countries than McDonalds restaurants
- Worldwide, GSM accounts for 64 percent of the total wireless market.
For more information, go to www.gsm-pcs.org, www.gsmdata.com or www.pcsdata.com.
