Re-printed with kind permission from Tarifica DIGITAL CELLULAR REPORT, 26 October 1998, Volume 4, Issue 20.

Everyone has heard of the GSM MoU, everyone has heard of Ericsson and Nokia but now the suppliers are joining forces to create a group like the GSM MoU to promote their interests as a whole.

The GSM Suppliers Association (GSA) has been formed following discussions between major suppliers. At the Cannes GSM World Congress the idea was first mooted by Ericsson and Nokia. Since February the initial group has expanded - at its launch in Zurich the GSA had twenty-one members. They represent most areas of the supply chain, from network equipment (Wavecom) through handset manufacturers (Benefon Oy) to billing (Saville Systems). "Most sectors are covered," says Alan Hadden, president of the GSA, "but we expect more." The aim is to extend the association membership to all those in the industry. As well as the actual business of the GSA much effort is being put into recruiting new members, "we are ensuring that all companies understand what is possible," stresses Hadden.

There are however different levels of membership, each bringing with them different voting rights, as well as attracting different charges. Associate members are merely kept up-to-date with the group's activities. Full members (the majority) are likely to be active and will join in with joint promotional activities. This group also has the chance to elect two of its members to the executive committee though currently only Bridge Trading International has been elected. Executive members have automatic membership to the executive, at present there are three of these, Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens.

The members are however, all pulling in the same direction. Nokia's vice president, systems marketing and sales, radio access systems, Olli Oittinen, expressed the company's support, "Nokia will play an active role in the GSA...we believe the GSA will be a good forum for the promotion and strengthening of this [GSM] platform."

Siemens' aim is to develop GSM services further, "we want to develop additional GSM features and want to become the leading vendor of third generation mobile radio-systems," says Lothar Pauly, head of communication on air division at Siemens' information and communication networks group.

Christer Gullstrand, GSM services director for GTE TSI Inc., said that he has, "been waiting for something big like this to happen." He had no answer to why it had never happened before, but the involvement in GSM MoU working groups has given suppliers influence and a structured involvement with operator customers.

The membership itself is not a huge commitment, Gullstrand: "its not a big financial thing." However he acknowledges that the GSA has, "big objectives," he is positive but not bullish about the potential influence of the group: "it could have an impact."

For an American company a commitment to GSM is a matter of commercial interest, Gullstrand says that GSM is becoming regarded less as an alien technology and more as a general standard, an alternative to IS-41. "As a company not only involved in GSM...we realise that GSM is not going to be the only mobile standard."

Promotion of the standard is less important to GTE than the issue of suppliers working together, interoperability is necessary for larger footprints, especially in the US, and that affects all suppliers.

The GSA denies that it is setting itself up against the GSM MoU, operators versus suppliers. The GSM MoU, whose membership is almost exclusively operators, was formed in 1987 but remains an operator's forum says Hadden, suppliers can't vote and are involved only on a project by project basis.

One of the aims of the group is to get suppliers' views heard more widely in other industry groups by presenting a coordinated approach.

Recent industry-wide consortiums to create open standards for innovations in the industry, such as the WAP Forum and Bluetooth, show that there is an increasing need for co-ordination across the industry, even between competitors. The GSA is not expected to replace these ad hoc groupings, or even to foster them. But the opportunity will be there. Hadden says that if the GSA grows large enough and vendors have confidence in it the association may contribute to these ad hoc groups but it is really a question of the desire of individual suppliers.

The terms of reference are more related to promoting the technology of GSM (although the GSA intends to encourage the development of efficient GSM-based software tools and applications).

The GSA will be working in new and developing mobile markets to increase market awareness of GSM, to support its take up and to encourage understanding among consumers. It will co-ordinate the efforts of its members to this goal as well as launching its own initiatives.

The GSA believes its active promotion of GSM as a technology is unique, though it would be hard to argue that in the CDMA context with the proactive US-based CDMA Development Group keeping the world up-to-date with the spread of CDMA.

Further information about the GSA