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1988: New Standards for Cell Phones

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The Early Years: Cell phones and the FCC
1977: Cell phones Go Public
1988: New Standards for Cell Phones

The year 1988 changed many of the technologies that had become standard in the past. The Cellular Technology Industry Association was created to set realistic goals for cellular phone providers and research new applications for cell phone development. A new standard was set by the Telecommunications Industry Asoociation with the creation of the TDMA Interim Standard 54, in 1991. Since then, three new technologies have evolved into industry standards for cell phone telecommunications: TDMA IS-136, CDMA IS-95 and GSM.

As of 2001 (the original date of this writing), the first two, TDMA and CDMA, were both in widespread use in the U.S.A. GSM became the standard in Europe but had yet to be frequently used in the U.S.A. as TDMA and CDMA technology.

Now, almost five years later, GSM and CDMA have become the de facto standards in the U.S.A., with TDMA usage fading each day. Long before GSM became one of the standards in the U.S.A., it become the global standard. Although certain highly technological areas (Korea, Japan) now operate on next-generation networks (3G), much of the world still and probably will continue to operate on GSM.

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