NAE Draperpize
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To whom it may concern Supporting Letter for Thomas Haug for the NAE Draper Prize - Stephen Temple CBE, MSc, CEng, FIET I have known Thomas Haug since 1984 and worked very closely with him and many others on the GSM project. I have no hesitation in supporting his nomination for the NAE DraperPize. I have written a book on the Political History of GSM and set up the Web site WWW.GSMHistory.Corn which is now the top Google ranking web site on the history of GSM or GSM History. On the Web site I have addressed the question many people ask "Who created GSM". This Web page may be treated as a supporting document to this letter. It shows two things. First, there was no single inventor of GSM (as everyone knows) but second, Thomas Haug has been central to the success of GSM and better represents the spirit of that success than any other person. First, what is the significance of GSM? GSM ( Global Systems for Mobile Communication) is atriple achievement: (l) There would not be over 6 billion mobiles world wide today without GSM. (2) For anyone to go to one of over 200 countries, get offthe plane and their mobile phone works automatically with any of 800 different networks would not have happened without GSM. (3) The importance of the mobile phone in driving economic growth in some of the world's poorest countries (eg in Africa) would not have happened without GSM. Among the reasons for this triple success were the re-orientation of national approaches to a common technical approach, presumption of international roaming, an all embracing technical standard ie an Intelligent Network sitting over the radio air interface and the SIM-card. Nobody believed in 1982 (or as late as 1936) that European countries were capable of the high degree of co-operation necsssary to pull-offa common digital mobile standard. Thomas Haug's leadership of GSM over this critical period was a unique and indispensible success factor. The social and economic impact of GSM is well documented. But its industrial impact has also been enormous. In creating "global mobilitfl'it marginalised mobile satellite systems. It was the platform that allowed SMS to emerge that was to sweep away the paging industry. It crushed Telepoint (cordless telephone) based public mobility. This was all a necessary condition for the massive global economies of scale that was to make the mobile the most widely used electronic device on the planet. Less well known is that GSM, led by Thomas, also established an enduring culture of underlying co-operation in an otherwise cut throat competitive word - a force that has allowed 3G and LTE to emerge globally to the benefit of consumers everywhere. It is my strong belief that if all those who played a key role in GSM in the 1980's were to assemble today and vote on a single person to be honoured for the achievements of GSM, there would only be one candidate, he would get l00o/o of the vote and his name is Thomas Haug. Yours faithfully Stephen Temple CBE Sqpp_ortingLetter for Thomas Haug for the NAEDraper Prize As a formerCEO of the telecomoperator TELIA I cameacross the emergingNordic Mobile Telephone System ( NMT) already on myfirst dayat officein 1977. lt wasa mind-bogglingconcept aimingat makingany telephone (fixed or radio-based)automat- icallyaddressable from any mobile terminal. Car-basedradiophones wasn't that new a concept.lt was introducedalready in 1946in St.Louisand the first (semi) automaticnetwork was launchedin Swedenback in 1956. TheBell Lab concept of cellular(dividing a citynetwork into a numberof smallercells) promised further progress, as a reuseof limitedspectrum could enable dramatically raised capacities, and hencefar moreusers. lt wasa naturalambition in manycountries to go fromsounds to things-as the paceof progressin the areaof microprocessorspermitted. The enabling of seamless" handover" whena userwas moving from one cell to the next(using a differ- entfrequency) was a non-trivialissue. lt requirednew levels of computerizedintelligence at reasonableprices. Howeverthe ambitionsof the NMTGroup incepted in 1969went evenfurther. In a longerperspective it was not considered good enoughto enablecalls FROM a mobile.There was also a user requirementto be ableplace a callfrom any fixed or mobilephone TO a mobile,irrespective of itsgeographical whereabouts. Also outsideits " homecity" and even its " homecountry". NMT was thusthe first international mobile network. Therest is history.NMT proved an immediatesuccess. Users wereno longerconfined to a specificlocal area, but could move freelyand be reachedalso at otherlocations. Not only within the countryof Sweden- butthis newfreedom of usewas extendedto coverall of thefour Nordic countries. Already the nextyear (1982) representativesfrom 13 countrieswere gathered in Stockholmto discussto the nextgeneration ( GSM) bound to covernot only Europe- buteventually more than 200countries and billions ( ratherthan millions) of users. Now- whatabout the personalcontributions of ThomasHaug ? Thereare clearlygood reasons to creditthe collectiveforesight- nessof the " FoundingFathers" from the four Nordic countries 2 backin 1969.However, Thomas was there from the verystart. Originallyas secretaryto the NMTGroup -but laterappointed its Chairman.In 1973he presentedhis thesis at KTH ( the Royal Instituteof Technology)on thevery issue on the interaction betweenwireless vs. fixednetworks- potentially enabling new dimensionsof freedomto users. In 1987IVA ( the RoyalSwedish Academy of Engineering Sciences)awarded Thomas Haug and( the late)Osten Mdkitalo itsGold Medals for their individualcontributions. Thereby, also rewardingthe productivelong-term cooperation between the two men- with quitedifferent backgrounds from the separateworlds of wirelessvs. fixed networks. lt was notedthat NMT was already the largestcellular network in theworld. By 1990the networkhad reachedits first million users in the NordicRegion alone. (Com- prisingaround 25 millionspopulation). From1982 Thomas Haug had already went on to chairthe tech- nicaldevelopment of the successfulGSM- standards, based on the experiencesfrom the NMTnetwork. From the early90-ies GSMwas replacing NMT and deployed in a rapidlyincreasing numberof countriesbound to provideglobal reach. Summingup: Eventhere is obviouslya largenumber of othersto creditfor the success of NMT/GSM -the ThomasHaug contri- butionsstand out as exceptional.Ranging from the very early years 1970-iesto the deploymentof GSMin theearly 1990- ies. 124'r, Memberof the RoyalSwedish Academy of EngineeringSciences Tel.+46(0)70 5120000 mai|: haggtfom,[email protected] m SupportingLetter for ThomasHaug for the NAEDraper Prize - Fromthe perspectiveof a (professional)user already NMT enabledradical and positive changes. A separatemarket for terminals- openfor internationalcompetition. Not to mentionthe newdegrees of freedomof use.You couldmove freely not only within yourhome country - butalso in otherNordic countries - andduring the 1980-iesin an increasingnumber of othercountries. - Fromthe perspectiveof a RegulatorGSM (as the follow-upof NMT)provided even more " Degreesof Freedom".Not only as a matterof more(and rapidlyincreasing) number of countries- but the SIM-cardenabled also further degrees of freedome.g. by facilitatingnumber portability. You could keep your handset (and telephonenumber) also when having switched to another competingnetwork operator. The successof this marketopening pavedthe wayfor infrastructurecompetition, not onlyin mobiles butalso in the areaof fixednetworks. Sincethe early1980's Swedish enterprises fast adopted the new mobiletechnology NMT with, from start, vast area coverage and roamingopportunities with Nordic operators and later also in other countriessuch as the Netherlandsand Switzerland. Even if differentkinds of mobiletelephony systems were launched also in othercountries they were based on differentnational and proprietarystandards. Someone who travelled across the US wouldprobably remember how you pickedup a newrented handsetat the arrivalairport, having returned the formerone by FedExbefore take-off to the nextcity. The advantageof being possibleto be reachedwith one number only as wellas getting onlyone bill was appreciated. The open NMT standard also paved wayfor separateand competitivesupply of handsets.Businesses applauded. Neverthelessprofessional users soon urged for more,i.e. competitiveprovision of services.Business interests were actively arguingfor the casethrough the SwedishAssociation of ProfessionalTelecom Users NTK andalso by INTUG- the Europeanprofessional user organization. Whether such developmentwas foreseen by the initiatingNordic monopolists is a notclear - butthe journey forward had started. In parallelwith goingdigital with similar open standards for GSM. Themigration from NMT 900 to GSMran smoothly presumably becauseof fallingconsumer GSM handset prices in combination withthe superiorGSM functionality. A choicebetween not only two but 3-4 competingnetworks became available in many countries.Since then further spectrum has beenreleased on severaloccasions for the GSM-based3G and4GILTE in addition to the narrowband2G networks.In spiteof recentspectrum auctionswithout any technology restrictions the GSMfamily dominatestotally. To-day'sbooming data and speech mobility of courseowes much to SW andHW technological break-throughs over the last20-30 years,but the NMT/GSMfundamentals are virtually unchanged. Fundamentalsthat are also proven to be scalable. AlthoughThomas Haug and the lateOsten Mdkitalo jointly started developinginternational mobile and mobile-to-fixed standards in a Nordicmonopolistic environment, they clearly saw the potentialof competitionenhancing price performance and functionality contraryto the thengenerally highly segmented systems and -at best- domesticmarkets. These standards have in turnchanged, broadenedand sharpened the suppliersand operators businesses torretainICT aB-one of the majoreconomic sectors in the world. CurtA. Andersson Memberof the RoyalSwedish Academy of EngineeringSciences, Divisionof InformationTechnology FormerDeputy Director of the SwedishPost & TelecomRegulator PTSand Former Member of the ITUCouncil FormerExecutive of the SwedishAssoclation of Professional TelecomUsers .