Truphone Joins GSMA as an Application Developer

The Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA) is one of the world's biggest collectives of mobile operators and related firms around, currently with one particular goal in mind, at last report: the advancement of the GSM mobile telephone system. It's been working toward that goal, and several others, since its creation in 1995, and now, it's added one more member to its ranks as Truphone has signed on with the organization in the “application designer” space.

The GSMA counts nearly 800 mobile operators as members, and in addition, an extra 250 companies in the mobile ecosystem overall are counted in the GSMA's roster. Truphone, meanwhile, is an associate member within the group, which serves to confirm that the company is—and by extension its products are—compliant with GSMA standards.

That alone is a pretty big step for the company, and represents the kind of move that will likely foster confidence in both Truphone and its product line around the world, especially with other GSMA members and those who believe that GSMA standards are the right ones to stick with. But that's not going to be the only major move that Truphone's set to make in the near term. More specifically, Truphone's chief technology officer, James Tagg, is set to make an appearance at the upcoming ITEXPO event, set to run August 11 – 14 at the Rio in Las Vegas. Tagg's presentation, titled “The Un-Wireless Unlicensed LTE”, will run from 11:15am to noon on Wednesday, August 13.

As part of that presentation, at last report, Tagg will be examining how the market is making moves to long term evolution (LTE) connectivity over the older forms of connectivity. That in turn has driven an array of spectrum solutions, but now, a new opportunity has arisen in the field to make LTE part of the unlicensed spectrum, and that in turn has some significant potential for wider ramifications in the market. Will carriers start to make plays for unlicensed spectrum? Or will this represent the opportunity that smaller carriers with less capital have been waiting for to get into a market that formerly had some very high barriers to entry?

The answers to these questions likely lie somewhere in the middle. It's hard to imagine that larger carriers wouldn't have an interest in unlicensed spectrum. Users have a steadily increasing appetite for mobile data, and getting in more spectrum could allow these businesses to offer exactly what the customers want. But with the rise of 5G likely approaching, would the larger businesses want access to unlicensed spectrum when a whole new breed of connectivity may be about to show up? Certainly smaller carriers would take an interest in something like this; as is the case with fiber connections, cable service and similar matters, it's not easy to get a start in the field. One can't just hang out a shingle and declare the business open, so getting spectrum access would be very important indeed. We have video on this and a variety of other topics available at this link.

Naturally, with something like this, only time will ultimately be able to tell just what will come of it all, but Tagg's presentation will likely provide further perspective into the market's inner workings. Its membership in GSMA will also provide perspective, and just what it's willing to share with the rest of the assembly should make for an opportunity afoot for astute companies.