We’ve come a long way since Alexander Graham Bell’s historic call on the first-ever telephone. Today, one underrated technology has evolved beyond recognition — GSM cellular.

Its guiding principle remains the same — consistency, reliability and an effective communication tool, all of which is made possible through cellular technology.

GSM or Global System for Mobile has been the global standard for mobile communication and was implemented in South Africa in 1993. Nobody can dispute that the cellular networks deliver a world-class service with superior coverage in South Africa. Over 99% of the country’s population is covered.

Despite the ubiquity of GSM, not many businesses and organisations are aware of how GSM has evolved over the last two decades, from 2G and 3G to 4G, and now there is talk of 5G. In addition, GSM has also been a pioneering technology to compete and replace existing legacy technologies, mainly that of copper fixed landlines.

Huge Telecom: Pioneers of GSM

Huge Telecom, a part of the Huge Group, is at the forefront of the GSM market and cellular technologies. As one of the most notable and only fit-for-business GSM terminal suppliers in the industry, the company has been providing cellular-based communication solutions to businesses across the country for over two decades.

Twenty years ago, Huge Telecom pioneered the LCR (least-cost router) industry and emerged as a serious provider of fixed last-mile communication in South Africa utilising GSM technology.

Nowadays, LCR products have evolved into more efficient and cost-effective solutions and products utilising various technologies. Huge Telecom has been at the forefront of this evolution, mainly with its unique GSM Full Suite Telephony (FST) service.

FST basically allows a business to make an inbound and outbound call to a business using GSM technology. It has the same features as the traditional copper landline.

FST is ideal for most small businesses that need easy access to reliable voice communication services — without the cost, hassle and complexity commonly found in the industry.

Why GSM?

GSM has continued to dominate the market as a preferred solution over other technologies. One of the advantages for consumers is that GSM is heavily regulated. This directly equates to being consistently dependable, conforming to high-security standards and offering great coverage. Cellular operators are bound to specific call-quality levels and uptime as prescribed by the industry regulator.

Alternatives to GSM technology do exist, notably voice over IP (VoIP). VoIP became fashionable several years ago as a GSM and copper replacement alternative. VoIP, though sometimes cost effective, often suffers from problems such as implementation and configuration complexity, lack of reliability, security and more often than not, poor voice quality.

This certainly doesn’t help small businesses prosper, given that voice is still the primary channel used to find, service and retain customers. We all know how much our economy needs small businesses to thrive.

To make matters worse, smaller businesses with fixed lines are going to be forced to seek alternatives given the recent announcement that Telkom plans to decommission their legacy copper network. If small businesses do not take care when looking at the options, they risk financial losses and sit with frustration moving to IP-based voice services.

GSM, on the other hand, can offer all the functionality of VoIP, minus the technical challenges mentioned above. Huge Telecom’s FST service leverages the GSM network and offers a viable alternative communication solution to copper-based landline and VoIP technologies.

Additionally, Huge Telecom’s FST solutions enable business to port their local landline telephone number to their network, set up multiple devices in a hunt group and take concurrent in and outbound calls. It is essentially providing a full telephone system service in a neat and cost-effective package that is guaranteed to work in most places in South Africa. The FST solution also requires no dependency on the Internet or an available data connection. The FST service is on 24 hours a day and installation is simple. Finally, there is a true alternative to traditional phone lines.

The future of GSM

To meet today’s increased demand for reliable voice communication for businesses, wireless voice technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Huge Telecoms is at the forefront of the market, having developed a product suitable for the South African market, making it quick and easy for smaller businesses to get connected so that they can focus on their business without having to worry about the IT stuff.