Paradigm shift in the World of Mobile Computing...

Since the day of July 1991 when the GSM network was first made operational in Finland lot of things have changed.

In earlier days of Mobile Communication, the communication part was important and it was the most challenging part of mobile computing. Lots of research has taken place to develop a Mobile Switching Center, Base Station Controller, etc. Not only that, lots of inputs have been made to define how the different MSCs will communicate with each other and how the interfaces between different parts of the network elements like Um, Abis, B interface, and C interface will function.

In those days, stresses were given to define Traffic Channel and Signalling Channel. Common Control Channel (CCCH) or Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH) were more important than the mobile device itself. Modulation and technologies like Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum were more important than the voice and data itself.

But days have changed. Once the telecommunication part of mobile computing is more or less established and the OFCN is laid down, the focus is now on the usefulness of the data and the voice itself or what we do with the data that are being transmitted over the network. The focus shifted from the network part to the mobile device part.

And with the advent of smartphones, it is the Apps that have become more important than any other parts of the mobile ecosystem. The apps have created a complete paradigm shift in the mobility world and it is taking the world of mobility to a different concept altogether.

From late 2007 to approximately 2010 were the years when mobile apps became multi-billion dollar businesses. And it forced every organization to take a policy that is called the Mobility First policy. It means that for each and every service that a company offers, it first takes care of the mobile platform.

And the latest paradigm shift in the mobility world is mobile social computing. We have seen the proliferation of social apps like Facebook, Google Plus, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and many others and I can say that these apps are shaping the behaviors of mobile users.

With this ever-changing mobile world, the engineers also had to align themselves accordingly. For example, I started my career as a Telecommunication engineer in SIEMENS India and now working on the Android platform after working on other mobile OS like Symbian S60. To do that I had to unlearn many things related to the mobile network world and relearn software like C++, Java, Design Pattern, UML, and such things. So here I am now. I was able to successfully transform myself from a telecommunication engineer to a mobile software engineer and presently working on Android.

Probably many people of my age who started their career in 1994-95, have undergone such transformation. There were always some teething problems in this change management, but I feel happy that I have seen the world of mobile telecommunication changing in front of my eyes…

Today this Android app which you can install from https://tinyurl.com/y752chtb

that describes the call setup of GSM GSM-originated call to a PSTN number is my tribute to the change of priority of technologies in the world of telecom - from a Telecomm-centric domain to an App-centric world...