Services & Applications
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Services & Applications
The GSM family of technologies provides the ideal platform for a wide variety of consumer and enterprise applications and services. This platform has been so successful that GSM has become the technology of choice for more than 89 percent of today's mobile customers and provides a remarkable arena for developers of content, software and applications. GSM is an open standard, thus it provides a level playing field for competition among manufacturers and operators alike. This openness creates vast economies of scale, which ultimately supplies value for GSM industry players and their consumer and enterprise customers.
The massive worldwide deployment of GSM-EDGE wireless data networks is providing the backbone on which these new applications and services are being deployed. Now, with wide-scale global deployment of UMTS-HSPA, the number of high-speed wireless data applications is growing tremendously. Initially technologies such as SMS, MMS, photo messaging and J2ME were layered onto these networks to provide an environment where an unlimited number of applications and services could be developed. These data-centric applications are the key to growth and profitability in a wireless mobile world for GSM operators. They are also driving new and exciting options for mobile consumers, who are hungry to expand their use of new and innovative technologies beyond only voice services. Consumers are looking to enable a digital mobile lifestyle. Emerging in today’s market are applications such as mobile TV, video share, video calling, mobile payments, mobile music, mobile Internet and mobile advertising.
By mid 2009, the volume of data traffic significantly exceeded voice traffic in HSPA coverage areas worldwide. Operators that are the most aggressive with mobile broadband services are experiencing data growth rates even higher than these reported average values. Traffic continues to increase.
 UMTS-HSPA Voice and Data Traffic
Source: HSPA to LTE-Advanced: 3GPP Broadband Evolution to IMT-Advanced
Rysavy Research for 3G Americas, Sept 2009 Over time, data demands are expected to grow significantly, which is illustrated in the following projection by Chetan Sharma of mobile data growth in the US through 2014.
 Mobile Data Growth in the United States
Source: Managing Growth and Profits in the Yottabyte Era
Chetan Sharma, July 2009. (NOTE: 1 Terabyte = 1000 Gigabytes) This Services and Applications section contains materials that discuss several technologies and services and how GSM operators are using them to drive the market forward.
GSM applications that are available today include:
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