2) HISTORY OF TELECOM INDUSTRY

The word telecommunication was adapted from the French word tlcommunication. It isa compound of the Greek prefix tele, meaning 'far off', and the Latin communicare,meaning 'to share'. Telecommunication is thetransmissionof signalsover a distance for the purpose of communication.In modern times, this process almost always involves thesending of electromagnetic wavesby electronic transmitters but in earlier years it mayhave involved the use of smoke signals,drumsor semaphore. Today, telecommunicationis widespread and devices that assist the process, such as thetelevision,radioandtelephone, are common in many parts of the world. There is also a vast array of networksthat connect these devices, includingcomputer networks,public telephone networks, radio networksandtelevision networks. Computer communication across theInternet, such ase-mailandinstant messaging, is just one of many examples of telecommunication.Telecommunication systems are generally designed by telecommunication engineers.Early inventors in the field includeElisha Gray,Alexander Bell, Nikola Tesla,GuglielmoMarconiandJohn Logie Baird.In recent times,optical fibrehas radically improved the bandwidth available for intercontinental communication, helping to facilitate a faster andricher Internet experience. And,digital televisionhas eliminated effects such assnowy picturesandghosting. Telecommunication remains an important part of the worldeconomy and the telecommunication industry's revenue has been placed at just under 3%of thegross world product.The basic elements of a telecommunication system are: atransmitter that takesinformationand converts it to asignalfor transmission atransmission mediumover which the signal is transmitted areceiver that receives and converts the signal back into usable informationFor example, consider a radio broadcast. In this case

thebroadcast tower is thetransmitter, theradiois the receiver and the transmission medium isfree space. Oftentelecommunication systems are two-way and devices act as both a transmitter andreceiver or transceiver. For example, amobile phoneis atransceiver . Telecommunicationover a phone line is calledpoint-to-point communicationbecause it is between onetransmitter and one receiver, telecommunication through radio broadcasts is called broadcastcommunication because it is between one powerful transmitter and numerousreceivers22

Service (SMS). The advantage for network operators has been the ability to deployequipment from different vendors because the open standard allows easy inter-operability.Like other cellular standards GSM allows network operators to offer roaming services which mean subscribers can use their phones all over the world. GSM is acellular network,which means thatmobile phonesconnect to it by searching for cells inthe immediate vicinity. GSM networks operate in four differentfrequency ranges.MostGSM networks operate in the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz bands. Some countries in theAmericas (including the United States and Canada) use the 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands because the 900 and 1800 MHz frequency bands were already allocated.The GSM logo is used to identify compatible handsets and equipmentThere are four different cell sizes in a GSM network - macro, micro, pico and umbrellacells. The coverage area of each cell varies according to the implementation environment.Macro cells can be regarded as cells where the base stationantennais installed on a mastor a building above average roof top level. Micro cells are cells whose antenna height isunder average roof top level; they are typically used in urban areas. Picocells are smallcells whose diameter is a few dozen meters; they are mainly used indoors. Umbrella cellsare used to cover shadowed regions of smaller cells and fill in gaps in coverage betweenthose cells.The network behind the GSM system seen by the customer is large and complicated inorder to provide

all of the services which are required. It is divided into a number of sections and these are each covered in separate articles. TheBase Station Subsystem(thebase stationsand their controllers). The Network and Switching Subsystem(the part of the network most similar to afixed network). This is sometimes also just called the core network. TheGPRS Core Network (the optional part which allows packet based Internet connections). all of the elements in the system combine to produce manyGSM servicessuch asvoice calls andSMSThe Base Station Subsystem (BSS) is the section of aGSMnetwork which isresponsible for handling traffic and signaling between amobile phoneand the Network Switching Subsystem. The BSS carries out transcoding of speech channels,allocation of radio channels to mobile phones,paging,quality management of 24

transmission and reception over theAir interfaceand many other tasks related to theradio network