Sudanese National Agricultural Summit and Lessons for Nigeria II

Agricultural Innovations: Sudanese National Agricultural Summit and Lessons for Nigeria II

How are the public owned research Institutes performing in Sudan? What are the lessons to Nigeria from the Sudan National Agricultural Summit? These were the two questions used to close the first part of this article last week. The most notable umbrella assigned with responsibilities to conduct agricultural research in Sudan is Agricultural Research corporation (ARC). Thus, ARC is mandated to conduct applied agricultural research on food and industrial crops, forestry, livestock and food technology, and with ecological and regional responsibilities to develop sustainable production systems in the Sudan. The objectives of ARC include generation, development and adaption of agricultural technologies targeting the needs of the over all agricultural development and its beneficiaries on sustainable manner. Furthermore, the objectives include capacity building of the agricultural research system for high efficiency and effectiveness based on developmental needs. Again, ARC plays an active role in dissemination of agricultural research results. ARC functions through a network of 27 research stations, 14 research centers and two research units located in different places across the geographical area of Sudan. The research activities are conducted through 24 research programs under the purview of ARC. ARC has more than 3000 personnel comprising administrative staff, technicians, researchers and laborers. The research centers are akin to the National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs) in Nigeria. Similarly, ARC has a wide network and linkages with many bilateral and multilateral development agencies, regional and international research institutions such as IITA, IRRI, ILRI, FAO, EU, and many others.   

The research programs are commodity based or discipline related covering cash and food crops emergent technologies such as biotechnology, genetic resources and water harvesting. To take advantage of the international donor agencies for agricultural development, Sudan joint CGIAR fund in 2014 and contributed one million US Dollars to the CGIAR multi-donor trust fund. As a contributor/donor to the fund, Sudan benefits enormously from the world largest agricultural research partnership in the fields of development and dissemination of improved crop varieties, sustainable agro – forestry and integrated crop – livestock system. CGIAR is an acronym of Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research. CGIAR is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food-secured future. CGIAR's vision is supported by four strategic objectives of rural poverty reduction, increase of food security, improvement of human health and nutrition while ensuring sustainable management of natural resources.   CGIAR components include the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers, the CGIAR Fund, the CGIAR Independent Science and Partnership Council (ISPC) and partners. As the world’s largest global agricultural innovation network, CGIAR brings evidence to policy makers, innovation to partners and new tools to harness the economic, environmental and nutrition power of agriculture. Nigeria, similar to Sudan and many other countries, is a bilateral contributor to CGIAR projects.

Agriculture in Sudan is too important to be left under one ministry. Thus, there are two agricultural related ministries; Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Ministry of Animal Resources. Each of these ministries has one minister and two ministers of state making a total of six ministers driving/manning agricultural sector of Sudan. Surprisingly and interestingly, the two ministries intensively synergize to achieve agricultural development.   The development of the agriculture is a very important factor for the success of the Sudan’s aims to reduce poverty, increase the economic growth and achieve a sustainable development in the country. Therefore, the Agriculture Ministries are responsible for implementing policies that allow a sustainable development, ensure food and fight against poverty

Another interesting development is strategic way the ministry works with universities and private sector on special areas such as livestock genetic improvement. A good example is the symbiotic relationship between ministry of animal resources and SFARI Institute for animal reproduction technologies. SFARI is a private – partnership relying on strong technical support from French companies. SFARI policies and programmes are supervised by board of directors mainly from the ministry of animal resources and university of Bahri. The institute is specialized in capacity building of livestock farmers, laborers and animal scientists and veterinary scientists in all areas of livestock production and genetic improvement. Consequently, the target audience of SFARI includes people with basic education from secondary school leavers to university graduates and practicing scientists in genetic engineering. Equipped with modern facilities, SFARI training covers diverse areas on livestock genetic enhancement, biosecurity, embryo sexing, transfer, splitting and invitro fertilization, artificial insemination and improved pregnancy diagnosis and management. The Institute collaborates with university and research institutes for livestock reproductive problems and solutions identification in Sudan and other African countries. Efforts are also targeted at refining and indigenizing reproductive technologies for genetic improvement.

The concerted efforts of Sudan to develop agriculture in the country in spite of her enormous challenges have produced significant result. This is because the secession of Southern Sudan has deprived Sudan of 25% of it’s total area, 24% of population, over 80% of its oil income. So far, a study by IFAD shows that the contribution of agriculture to total manufacturing output in Sudan is 60 per cent while in the form of raw materials is 80 per cent of non-petroleum exports are agricultural products. As at 2017, the Sudanese agriculture is fast growing at exponential rate, more than five million live animals and 15 millions tons of meat were airlifted for exportation into the Middle East. Sudan’s animal wealth is Africa’s second largest. The national herd is estimated around 140 million heads of cattle (http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article58991). When one compare the population of 19 million heads of cattle in Nigeria with that of 140 million in Sudan, then one can appreciate the level of progress made in Sudan. This means there are 7 cows to every two persons in Sudan compared to one cow to ten people in Nigeria.   

The first lesson for Nigeria on the agricultural trend in Sudan is the deliberate, active and strategic involvement of the private sector. The cases of Zedna, CTC and SFARI Institute are successful examples of public – private driven agricultural research and extension model. This model brings out the best from the research angle as scientists have ample opportunity for capacity development and access to new research results and direction. The government (ministries) acquires more time for policy formulation; regulation and standardization while the farmers acquire improved technologies and enhanced productivity. Yes, Nigeria can simply copy the Sudan Model, modify it and apply for maximum efficiency.

The second lesson is the coordination of research activities in the country. As mentioned, ARC has the mandate to conduct applied agricultural research on food and industrial crops, forestry, livestock and food technology. This is an addition to ecological and regional responsibilities to develop sustainable production systems in the Sudan. ARC periodically identifies agricultural research problems while solutions are sought from the chain of research centers under her purview. This role is similar to that of Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN). The 17 National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs) under the Federal Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development/ARCN in Nigeria are similar to the 14 commodity – based research centers of Sudan. The major difference is the staffing and conduct of research between the two organizations. While the personnel of the ARC totaling 3,552 as in early 2016 are directly employees of ARC, the personnel of NARIs are directly employees of NARIs. Be as it is, ARCN has a full legal power to coordinate and regulate agricultural research activities in the country. However, this power of coordination and regulation is yet to bear fruits, as there is lack of synergy between the NARIs and other key stakeholders.

The third lesson from Sudan Agricultural strategy is the size of agricultural sector with more potential in Nigeria than Sudan. In Nigeria, over the years, agriculture has been relegated far behind in the nation developmental efforts for obvious reasons. Now that the nation has no option but develop agriculture and diversify the economy due to unreliability of the oil sector. Can we learn from the Sudanese strategy? What can we do to our livestock subsector? Surely, we have been paying more attention to crops subsector than livestock.  Should we have a separate Minister for Animal resources? To be food secured, we must double our efforts in coordination, research and extension in order to achieve the desired goals in Agriculture. The sector has the potential to gainfully employ 70 percent of Nigerians along the value chain and generate incomes for the nation ten times higher than that of oil sector or any other sector. The time to start is now as the future starts today.  

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Sudanese National Agricultural Summit and Lessons for Nigeria

Agricultural Innovations: Sudanese National Agricultural Summit and Lessons for Nigeria

The republic of Sudan or North Sudan is a country located in Northern Africa. A large country surrounded by seven other countries.  It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west and Libya to the northwest. It is the third largest country in Africa with geographical area of 1,886,068 square kilometres. The White Nile flows through the country, emptying into Lake Nubia in the north, the largest manmade lake in the world. The River Nile divides the country into eastern and western halves. South Sudan was part of Sudan until 2011 when they formally separated as two individual independent nations.

Sudan has many similarities with Nigeria especially the northern part of Nigeria. Largest river in the World, River Nile crisscrossed the country, which housed the confluence of White and Blue Niles at Khartoum, the Capital city of Sudan. Thus, the Blue and White Nile rivers meet in Khartoum to form the River Nile that flows northwards through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea. The Blue Nile's course through Sudan is nearly 800 km long and is joined by the Dinder and Rahad Rivers between Sennar and Khartoum. The White Nile within Sudan has no significant tributaries. Similar to Nigeria, River Niger and Benue meet in Lokoja, a state capital of Kogi state, one of the 36 states in Nigeria. Arabic and English are the official languages in Sudan but the population of Kanuri, Hausa and Fulani constitutes a significant percentage of the Sudan Population. The population of these three tribes makes about 10 million people out of the 39 million Sudan populations. They are found in the country’s civil service, armed forces, business, and politics and provide the bulk of foods in Sudan, as they constitute the majority of Sudan farming sector. Nigeria is believed to be the origin of these tribes; Kanuri, Hausa and Fulani. The dry regions of Sudan are plagued by sandstorms, which sometimes can completely block out the sun. In the northern and western semi-desert areas, people rely on the scant rainfall for basic agriculture and many are nomadic, travelling with their herds of sheep and camels. Nearer the River Nile, there are well-irrigated farms growing cash crops. The sunshine duration is very high all over the country but especially in deserts where it could soar to over 4,000 h per year

Like Nigeria, period of rainy season in Sudan increases towards the south from the north. The central and the northern part have extremely dry desert areas such as the Nubian Desert to the northeast and the Bayuda Desert to the east; in the south there are swamps and rainforest. Sudan's rainy season lasts for about three months (July to September) in the north, and up to six months (June to November) in the south.

Similarly, Sudan and Nigeria are both former British colonies, while Sudan has the largest geographical area in Africa; Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. In term of ethnic diversity, Nigeria has more than 500 different ethnic groups; Sudan is the second on the heterogeneity chart with about 400 ethno linguistic groups. Above all, in no two countries do the three political matrices of region, religion and ethnicity so totally underpin national politics like Nigeria and Sudan.

Similarities aside, Sudan undergone most turbulent political and socio-economic antecedents as a nation compared to Nigeria. From independence to date, there were civil wars, United Nation economic sanction and final disintegration or separation with South Sudan in 2011. The South Sudan acquired about 80% of the Sudan Petroleum oil, which severely effects the economic development of Sudan. In the years before South Sudan separation, there was rising oil revenue, the Sudanese economy was booming, with a growth rate of about nine percent in 2007 (Wikipedia). However, the separation of oil-rich South Sudan placed most major oilfields out of the Sudanese government's direct control and oil production in Sudan fell from around 450,000 barrels per day to under 60,000 barrels per day. However, oil production was raised to around 250,000 barrels per day between 2014 and 2015 but with low price. In the face of oil low price at the International market and massive reduction of the oil quantity, Sudan has no option but to turn to agriculture for survival and economic development.

Today, agriculture is the mainstay of Sudan economy employing 80 percent of the workforce and contributing 39 percent of its GDP, despite adverse weather and other challenges associated with agriculture in developing countries. With the lifted economic sanction and Sudan’s enthusiasm to develop agriculture, the Sudan government organized a week National Agricultural Summit from 23^rd to 29^th March 2018.  Nigeria was ably represented by a delegation led by the Honorable M. T. Monguno, Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture. The delegation comprises members of the private sector, Chief Executives of National Research Institutes (Crops, Livestock and Extension) and members of House Committee on agriculture. The Sudan agricultural realities and potentials were obtrusively displayed to the admiration of the participants of the Agricultural week.

The realities include the prominent roles of private sector in support and facilitation of agricultural development through mechanization and extension advisory services. In this regard, CTC group and Zedna International are on the lead. CTC Group is a leading multi-faceted conglomerate operating in Sudan across eight different sectors. CTC group, driven by ambitious entrepreneurial spirit domesticated some of the agricultural machineries produced by renowned manufacturers such as John Deere, Case Tractors, Suzuki, Tata, Syngenta and others. The machineries are being supplied to farmers with intensive capacity building for operation and maintenance. CTC is the leading agricultural inputs provider in Sudan as well as partakes in the production for technology demonstration and capacity building. They produce high quality fresh produce and crops for the local and export markets. CTC synchronizes with five-year government plan to transform Sudan traditional and labor-intensive agriculture to modern and mechanized agriculture with multiple outputs. It provides solutions to the Sudan diverse agriculture. The results were significantly encouraging. Evidence-based yield increase of various commodities between traditional methods of production and CTC promoted/improved methods were shown. There were yield increases for Sorghum by 5 folds, sesame, sunflower and cotton by 4 folds each. Mutwakil Haroun, a smallholder farmer won a national prize for a zenith target of obtaining ten-folds yield increase for sorghum using CTC technology. This translates to about yield of 5 tons per hectare against less than yield of one ton per hectare using traditional method. CTC has established a number of technology transfer centers in the major agricultural areas and production sites to facilitate the transfer of best practices to the farming communities of Sudan. The major motivation for CTC is the government’s patronage and their millions of clients (farmers). While farmers gain high profit margin through adoption of new technologies, government gain through increase of agricultural productivity for the nation and the CTC gains high profit margin and national influence. This is a case of “win-win situation”.

  Zadna International Investment Co. Ltd is another private sector, which plays a significant role in promotion and facilitation of horticultural crops in Sudan. It has multi-millions US Dollar tissue-culture laboratory for the massive production of exotic, disease and virus – free seedlings for various horticultural crops.  Zadna has the capacity to produce 4 million seedlings per year, which is much more than the national demands of seedling per period. To encourage farmers go into horticultural production, government provides a subsidy of 60% of the cost of each seedling purchased by farmers from Zadna. Attested by Dr Badreldin Elshiek Mohamed of Zadna “We receive much government support for agricultural and horticultural projects in Sudan. This allows us to invest in the cultivation and quality of our techniques. One hundred million US Dollar has been budgeted (by government) for the next five years.” (http://zadna-int.com/2017/08/22/sudan-government-invests-100-million-dollar-in-fresh-produce-cultivation/). The strategy of Sudan Government to provide subsidy to the inputs supplier as in the case of Zadna is producing the desired results. This is because the seedlings production has tremendously increased over the years. CTC and Zadna are examples of government support to private sector for the development of Agriculture in Sudan. How are public owned research Institutes performing? What are the lessons to Nigeria from the Sudan National Agricultural Summit? (To be continued next week)

Recognising the Second Generation Inventors VI

Recognising the Second Generation Inventors VI

Still talking about GSM invention and its tremendous impact on global communication. GSM is not a creation of a single individual but collective efforts of personalities; mainly scientists, policy makers and business people. Part IV of this article presented the famous roles, which successfully brought out GSM for public use globally. Important personalities across Europe who played “the behind the scene roles” to fine-tune GSM were Armin Silberhorn (Germany), Stephen Temple (UK), Philippe Dupuis (France), Renzo Failli (Italy) and Thomas Haug (Switzerland), respectively. GSM (Groupe Spécial Mobile) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such as phones and electronic tablets. As mentioned in the previous part of this article, Finland was the first country to use GSM in December 1991, which was followed by several other countries. As of 2014, GSM has become the global standard for mobile communications with over 90% market share, operating in over 190 countries across all the continents.

GSM is a cellular network that allows cell phones connects to it by searching for cells in the immediate vicinity. There are five distinct cell sizes in a GSM network—macro, micro, pico, femto, and umbrella cells. The coverage area (20 to 35 km –diameter) of each cell varies according to the implementation environment. Macro cells can be regarded as cells where the base station antenna is installed on a mast or a building above average rooftop level. Micro cells are cells whose antenna height is under average rooftop level; they are typically used in urban areas. Pico cells are small cells whose coverage diameter is a few dozen meters; they are mainly used indoors. Femto cells are cells designed for use in residential or small business environments and connect to the service provider’s network via a broadband Internet connection. Umbrella cells are used to cover shadowed regions of smaller cells and fill in gaps in coverage between those cells.

Over the years from 1991 to date, users of GSM expanded exponentially to about 7 billion people Worldwide.  The use of GSM expansion continued alongside the improvement of the services being offered by GSM. Thus, the second generation (2G) networks were developed as a replacement for first generation (1G) analog cellular networks, and the GSM standard originally described as a digital, circuit-switched network was optimized for full duplex voice telephony. This expansion was achieved over time to include data communications, first by circuit-switched transport, then by packet data transport via GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution, or EGPRS). Subsequently, the 3GPP developed third-generation (3G) UMTS standards, followed by fourth-generation (4G) LTE Advanced standards, which do not form part of the ETSI GSM standard.

As astonishing as GSM technology, which can best be described as the miracle of the 21^st century in global communication, yet, it can’t provide satisfactory service without the two complementary items – cell phone and GSM service providers or operators.  One of the key features of GSM is the Subscriber Identity Module, commonly known as a SIM card. The SIM is a detachable smart card containing the user's subscription information and phone book. This allows the user to retain his or her information after switching cell phones. Alternatively, the user can also change operators while retaining the cell phone simply by changing the SIM. Now who invented cell phone?

Wireless transmission of voice messages through radio started about 100 years. However, use of mobile devices to receive and transmit voice messages wirelessly and also capable of connecting to the standard telephone network is a recent event. The first of such devices were barely portable compared to today's compact hand-held devices, and their use was gauche. Early devices were bulky, consumed high power, and the network supported only a few simultaneous conversations. Modern cellular networks allow automatic and universal use of mobile phones for voice, images and Internet data communications.

Unlike GSM, mobile phones invention could be wholly credited to one single individual, Martin Cooper, an American Engineer. Although, the advances in the development of mobile telephony started during the period of Second World War, in the 1940s when military made use of radiotelephony links. Hand-held radio transceivers were then available at the warfronts for wireless communication.  From the time Martin invented mobile phone, it undergone series of improvements up to the first-generation (1G) analog cellular network, second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, third-generation (3G) broadband data services to the state-of-the-art, fourth-generation (4G) native-IP networks.

Martin "Marty" Cooper was born on December 26, 1928 to Mary Cooper and Arthur Cooper during the Great Depression in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. His parents; Arthur and Mary had emigrated to U.S.A. from Ukraine, former USSR (Russia). Martin is a pioneer in the wireless communications industry, especially in radio spectrum management, with eleven patents in the field to his credit. According to Wikipedia, Martin made the mobile invention while working as General Manager of Motorola in the 1970s, it was the first handheld cellular mobile phone (distinct from the car phone) in 1973 and led the team that developed it and brought it to market in 1983. For this reason, he is considered the "father of the cell phone" and is also cited as the first person in history to make a handheld cellular phone call in public. Martin made the first wireless mobile phone call on April 3, 1973. He took an early model of Motorola's DynaTAC phone, which was a brick phone weighing 2.5 pounds, measuring 9 inches long and 5 inches deep, and featuring about 20 minutes of battery life in the streets of New York City. He pressed the phone's "off hook" button and he made a call to the landline of Bell Labs, where he was connected to his counterpart, Joel Engel. "Joel, this is Marty," he gleefully said, "I'm calling you from a cell phone, a real handheld portable cell phone." "As I walked down the street while talking on the phone," Martin later admitted, "sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call," Martin told Mail online of 5^th April 2011, “remember that in 1973, there weren't cordless telephones, let alone cellular phones (in America), I made numerous calls, including one where I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter - probably one of the more dangerous things I have ever done in my life”. Then, it was an incredible scene beyond human comprehension. Thereafter, he allowed the reporters make their own calls to using the mobile device for verification that the invention actually worked and they weren't the victims of an elaborate hoax. What was his motivation? He was also quoted saying “People want to talk to other people - not a house, or an office, or a car. Given a choice, people will demand the freedom to communicate wherever they are, unfettered by the infamous copper wire. It is that freedom we sought to vividly demonstrate in 1973". From the, it took Motorola staggering ten years before Motorola finally introduced the Dyna-TAC, the first commercially available mobile phone, into service in 1983. The device weighed 1lb and cost a staggering $3,500 (£2,170) at time of the release.

Martin Cooper's role in conception and development of the first portable cellular phone impacted his choice to start and lead ArrayComm, a wireless technology and systems company founded in 1992. ArrayComm's core adaptive antenna technology increases the capacity and coverage of any cellular system and significantly lowers costs while making cellular calls more reliable. The technology addresses what Cooper calls "the unfulfilled promise" of cellular, which should be, but still isn't as reliable or affordable as wired telephone services. ArrayComm has also used its adaptive antenna technology to make the Internet more "personal" by creating the i-BURST Personal Broadband System, which delivers high-speed, mobile Internet access that consumers can afford. "It's very exciting to be part of a movement toward making broadband available to people with the same freedom to be anywhere that they have for voice communications today," Martin was quoted by an online publication “ThoughtCo” on 19^th April 2017. He further said. "People rely heavily on the Internet for their work, entertainment, and communication, but they need to be unleashed”.

Martin is a co-founder of numerous communications companies with his wife and business partner Arlene Harris. He is co-founder and current Chairman of Dyna LLC, in Del Mar, California. Cooper also sits on committees supporting the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the United States Department of Commerce. (To be continued next week).

Recognising the Second Generation Inventors V

Recognising the Second Generation Inventors V

Three weeks ago, readers of this Column may notice the interlude of this subject “Recognising the Second Generation Inventors”. This was done specially to report the findings of 2017 Agricultural Performance Survey (APS) and the consequential implications to food security in Nigeria. The issue of discussion before the intermezzo was “Google” and its matchless position in the global communication. Page and Brin, the inventors of Google continued to work hard relentlessly in all aspects of online communication to make it famous. In addition to Google being a illustrious “search engine”, it also experimented of being an Internet carrier. In February 2010, it introduced Google Fiber, a fiber-optic infrastructure that was installed in Kansas City; in April 2015, it launched Project Fi in the United States, which combines Wi-Fi and cellular networks from different providers; and in 2016, it packaged a Google Station initiative to make public Wi-Fi available around the world, with initial deployment in India. This is no doubt a groundbreaking trend in the global communication industry! 

The crusade of Google is rapidly amazing with menacing aim at conquering the global communication industry. The Google clientele is increasingly swelling at exponential rate while enjoying effective services at relatively lower costs making the pockets of Google inventors to similarly swells without ceiling. What is the target of Google?

The target of Google is simply to capture and bring every person on Earth make a user of Google products when using Internet services at all times. The Google strategy of bringing people under its umbrella is to capture what people do on daily basis and make it easy, efficient, attractive and unresisting for people to use Google product to do such things. For instance, in the month of October 2017, Google targeted children when it introduced “kids-friendly perk” via Google Assistant, which contains more than 50 kids-loving games, activities and stories. With parents’ permission and ability to intervene, kids under 13 could have their own personalized Google Assistant with their own login while the parents could manage what the kids use Google for and for how long they can use it via Google’s Family Link app. There are many astonishing features designed to meet kids’ curiosity as part of the application. Among such things are the ability for the kids to talk to people with different jobs and professionals (for instance, when kids choose jobs like zookeeper or nurse, teacher, etc the kids can hear a person who really does such jobs and ask questions about jobs); get homework help (including asking for state or country capitals, how to spell words, and synonyms and antonyms); enjoy story-time with a variety of titles local and international. Another instance was launching of Google Express in the same month of October 2017 when a user can place order via voice command. Google user can order for different items via a Google Home, which transmit the order to a shop “Target Corporation”, a second-largest discount store retailer in the United States of America, behind Walmart, and a component of the S&P 500 Index. This means that Target is supporting Google Express shopping service in the contiguous USA. It also means Target responds to the Google Assistant’s voice ordering feature, which is so far only live on the Google Home. Earlier, it was reported that Target was available through Google Express in New York City and California before the formal launching to cover the whole of USA. This marked a major expansion and helped to fill out Google’s service in a big way thereby increasing profitability to the owners. Well, this may perfectly be working in USA and other countries but similar application needs more effort to gradually cover many developing countries like Nigeria.  

While Google is inching out to bring every person under her feet and celebrating huge success, the foundation of the success was made possible due to the existence of Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication. The mobile cellular popularly called GSM became the solid foundation of the 21^st Century digital communication system, which truly made the World a global village. One can vividly remember the infamous statement of the then Nigerian Minister of Communication in the late 1980s when he was quoted saying, “telephone was not meant for the poor Nigerians”. Today, telephone is for everybody, thanks to debut of GSM. Who invented this communication wizardry called GSM?    GSM is a digital mobile telephony system, which is widely used in Europe and other parts of the world. GSM uses a variation of time division multiple access (TDMA) and is the most widely used of the three digital wireless telephony technologies (TDMA, GSM, and CDMA). CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and GSM (Global System for Mobiles) are shorthand for the two major radio systems used in cell phones. Both acronyms tend to group together a bunch of technologies run by the same entities.

Historically, the idea of GSM was mooted as far back as 1975 when Henry Kieffer from the Swiss recommended the need for the Europe to find new spectrum for mobile at 900 MHz – the vital raw material for radio. This was the first idea of having a mobile telephone, which can permit users communicate while on transit. The whole idea of GSM became a reality within 37 weeks in 1987. Before then, setting-up of GSM was the next significant milestone, which many countries in Europe, Japan and USA were working hard to achieve. In those countries the standards responsibility for the radio and the linked network were split between different standards bodies. The critical decision in 1982 was to allow GSM to define everything it needed for itself. This secured a competitive edge for European mobile standards making. Thus, every Research and Development Laboratory in Europe was tirelessly working to perfect the GSM technology. Famous institutions such as CNET, CSELT and BTRL, key Industrial Labs (Ericsson, Alcatel etc) and many Universities were all drawn into this breathtaking new opportunity – digitization of Europe’s mobile networks. In 1987, the breakthrough was eventually achieved; the Finnish Prime Minister (Harri Holkeri) made the first GSM call in Helsinki to the Mayor of Tampere (Kaarina Suonio) who was in front of the Rosendahl Hotel in Tampere in Finland. This modest success of GSM was then passed into the hands of hundreds of engineers from all the major mobile radio operators and the large electrical/electronic system companies. The result was a common cellular radio network right across Europe aimed at serving the communication needs of the business community. It was an early triumph for the new European Single Market.

However, communication needs cut-across the stratum of the society, far beyond the business community, thus, the future destiny of GSM was not to stay rooted in the business market alone. Crave for high profit making and driven by cutthroat competition among the GSM promoters and service providers led the GSM to become the most successful communications network in history – with over 6 billion users as at 2013. The mobile industry was to move out of its base of professional electronics and into a new world of consumer electronics. Still, who were the personalities and their roles to make GSM achieved this tremendous success? It is difficult to credit one personality for the GSM innovation, as it was the product of collective efforts. In Europe where GSM was originated, there was a pivotal moment, which was a turbulent period in 1987; there were critical events and critical players for policy, strategy and technical advancement of the GSM. Consequently, Europe produced the very first agreed GSM Technical Specification (February, 1987). Ministers from the 4 big EU countries cemented their political support for GSM with the Bonn Minister’s Declaration (May, 1987) and the GSM MoU was tabled for signature (September, 1987). The MoU drew-in mobile operators from across Europe to pledge to invest in new GSM networks to an ambitious common date. It got GSM up and running fast. In this pivotal moment the guiding hands shaping the outcome of all three critical events were Armin Silberhorn (Germany), Stephen Temple (UK), Philippe Dupuis (France) and Renzo Failli (Italy): Thomas Haug (Winner of the 2013 Draper Prize for pioneering contributions to the world’s first cellular telephone networks, systems, and standards) facilitated a seamless criss-crossing of the initiative in and out of GSM. Thomas Haug GSM Chairman kept the ship steady in turbulent waters until success was finally achieved. (To be continued next week)