You've come a long way baby...

[viridis]

With 4g+ now deploying over the o2 network, a milestone has been reached, up to 50mb internet speeds in some areas, even rural locations.

But it's important to remember where you come from.

Here is a brief history of GSM or as we know it "the network"

1982 Groupe Speciale Mobile established by to develop the pan-European cellular mobile system standards.

1985 Basic list of recommendations to be generated by the group was adopted.
1986 Field tests undertaken to prove which techniques should be adopted for the new system.
1987 TDMA approach adopted as the main access method for GSm. Frequency division is also used between channels, but time division each individual frequency channel.

Also in this year the Initial Memorandum of Understanding was signed by telecommunication operators from 12 member countries.
1988 GSM system validation undertaken
1989 ETSI, European telecommunications Standards Institute takes on responsibility for managing the GSM standards.
1990 Phase 1 of the GSM specifications released.
1991 Commercial launch of the GSM service
1993 Coverage of main roads GSM services start outside Europe
1995 Phase 2 of the GSM specifications released
2004 GSM subscriptions reach 1 billion. Announcement made at 3GSM in Cannes

Source & further reading:

http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/cellulartelecomms/gsm_technical/gsm-history.php

[MI5]

Very interesting and informative.
Thanks for posting mate.

[blissgirl]

No 4G here yet though 😞

[Martin-O2]

Fantastic history lesson there @viridis It's funny you use this technology every day but never stop to think about where it all came from. Thanks for posting. 

[Anonymous]

Great post @viridis fully enjoyed reading the history & good detail

[viridis]

Apologies, if viewing on mobile some of the post incorrectly shows so have kept the timeline and left the link for reading the full Article.

I recommend it, it's a really good read.

[Cleoriff]

Only just got to read this @viridis. Interesting, very concise and to the point. I will read the full article later. Thanks for posting.

[jonsie]

Read with great interest. Thanks @viridis

[Cleoriff]

An interesting text from O2 this morning...

Interesting as I have had 4G for quite a few months now....Anyway I played along and clicked on the link to 'keep an eye on progress'

Does this mean I may be getting this elusive 4G+?....

[MI5]

I think it's the mast at Bermuda they are upgrading.