Mobitex is an
OSI
OSI may refer to:
Places
* Osijek Airport (IATA code: OSI), an airport in Croatia
* Ősi, a village in Veszprém county, Hungary
* Oši, an archaeological site in Semigallia, Latvia
* Osi, a village in Ido-Osi, Ekiti State, Nigeria
* Osi, Ekiti ...
based
open standard
An open standard is a standard that is openly accessible and usable by anyone. It is also a prerequisite to use open license, non-discrimination and extensibility. Typically, anybody can participate in the development. There is no single definition ...
, national public access
wireless
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...
packet-switched data network. Mobitex puts great emphasis on safety and reliability with its use by military, police, firefighters and ambulance services. It was developed in the beginning of the 1980s by the Swedish
Televerket Radio. From 1988 the development took place in Eritel, a joint-venture between
Ericsson
(lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informat ...
and Televerket, later on as an Ericsson subsidiary. Mobitex became operational in Sweden in 1986.
In the mid-1990s Mobitex gained consumer popularity by providing
two-way
Two-way or Two Way may refer to:
* " 2-Way", single by rapper Lil' Romeo
* Two-way, Cincinnati chili topped on spaghetti
* "Two Way" (KT Tunstall and James Bay duet), 2016
See also
*
*
*
* 3-Way (disambiguation)
{{Disambiguation ...
paging network services. It was the first wireless network to provide always on, wireless
push email
Push email is an email system that provides an always-on capability, in which new email is actively transferred ( pushed) as it arrives by the mail delivery agent (MDA) (commonly called mail server) to the mail user agent (MUA), also called the ema ...
services such as
RadioMail
Mobitex is an OSI model, OSI based open standard, national public access WWAN, wireless packet-switched data network. Mobitex puts great emphasis on safety and reliability with its use by military, police, firefighters and ambulance services. It wa ...
and
Inter@ctive Paging. It is also used by the first model of
Research in Motion's BlackBerry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...
, and
PDAs such as the
Palm VII
The Palm VII was a personal digital assistant made by the Palm Computing division of 3Com. The device featured an antenna used for wireless data communication, a first for a Palm device. Connectivity was provided through the Mobitex
Mobitex is a ...
. During
9/11
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
and the
2005 hurricane rescue and clean-up operations, Mobitex proved itself to be a very reliable and useful system for first responders.
Mobitex is a
packet-switched
In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping data into '' packets'' that are transmitted over a digital network. Packets are made of a header and a payload. Data in the header is used by networking hardware to direct the pac ...
,
narrowband
Narrowband signals are signals that occupy a narrow range of frequencies or that have a small fractional bandwidth. In the audio spectrum, narrowband sounds are sounds that occupy a narrow range of frequencies. In telephony, narrowband is usua ...
, data-only technology mainly for short burst data. Mobitex channels are 12.5 kHz wide. In North America, Mobitex ran at , while in Europe it uses . The
modulation
In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the ''carrier signal'', with a separate signal called the ''modulation signal'' that typically contains informatio ...
scheme used is
GMSK
In digital modulation, minimum-shift keying (MSK) is a type of continuous-phase frequency-shift keying that was developed in the late 1950s by Collins Radio employees Melvin L. Doelz and Earl T. Heald. Similar to OQPSK, MSK is encoded with bi ...
with a
slotted aloha
ALOHAnet, also known as the ALOHA System, or simply ALOHA, was a pioneering computer networking system developed at the University of Hawaii. ALOHAnet became operational in June 1971, providing the first public demonstration of a Packet radio, w ...
protocol
Protocol may refer to:
Sociology and politics
* Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states
* Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state
* Etiquette, a code of personal behavior
Science and technolog ...
at , although user throughput is typically around half of that.
The network provided the first public access wireless data communication services in North America. Subscriber services included electronic messaging with
Cc capabilities to multiple recipients, combined with the ability to log on to any wireless or fixed terminal and receive stored mailbox messages.
Mobitex was offered on over 30 networks on five continents. European Mobitex networks almost completely withered in the shadow of the overwhelming success of
GSM
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...
there in the early 1990s. In Canada it was first introduced in 1990 by
Rogers Rogers may refer to:
Places
Canada
*Rogers Pass (British Columbia)
* Rogers Island (Nunavut)
United States
* Rogers, Arkansas, a city
* Rogers, alternate name of Muroc, California, a former settlement
* Rogers, Indiana, an unincorporated communit ...
Cantel, and in 1991 by
carrier
Carrier may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Carrier'' (album), a 2013 album by The Dodos
* ''Carrier'' (board game), a South Pacific World War II board game
* ''Carrier'' (TV series), a ten-part documentary miniseries that aired on PBS in April 20 ...
RAM Mobile Data. In earlier days Mobitex networks in the US were marketed under several names, including RAM Mobile Data,
BellSouth
BellSouth, LLC (stylized as ''BELLSOUTH'' and formerly known as BellSouth Corporation) was an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after ...
Wireless Data,
Cingular
AT&T Mobility LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and provides wireless services in the United States. AT&T Mobility is the th ...
Wireless and
Velocita Wireless following several acquisitions and divestments. Since 2013 the network is operated by American Messaging Services, LLC (AMS) and remains operational.
Mobitex in the UK was marketed by RAM Mobile Data, the UK part of which was purchased from BellSouth (USA) by Twenty First Century Ltd (John Camilleri and Adrian Nicolle) in 2000, that became Transcomm and was then purchased by
BT (British Telecom) in 2004. The uses of Mobitex in the United Kingdom were all emergencies (blue light) services, couriers, vehicle telematics (logistics), vending (parking) and vehicle breakdown services (RAC, AA, Green Flag).
All UK ambulance services used the network to dispatch crews and track progress. The London Metropolitan Police used Mobitex to access the police criminal record database whilst in field and in real time, revolutionary at the time. During the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London, the Transcomm Network was the only wireless network which kept running. Nearly all breakdowns to Green Flag UK service agents were sent using
Turbo Dispatch
Turbo Dispatch is a public domain standard for the electronic transfer of job details, initially using packet radio, but now also using the internet. It is used throughout the United Kingdom to pass the details of stranded motorists between all ...
, a Mobitex-based gateway software developed in the early nineties by Ian Lane and Andy Lambert. Despite the competitive nature of the vehicle recovery market in the UK, motoring organisations were persuaded to co-operate and make a standard of the format. This resulted in a major saving for the eight hundred independent garages used by the motoring organisations. The Turbo Dispatch Standards Group (the official keepers of the standard) estimated that at least twenty million breakdowns and recoveries were transmitted over Turbo Dispatch each year. BT subsidiary Transcomm announced the shutdown of the network in 2010.
In Sweden the Mobitex network was finally shut down permanently on December 31 2012 after 25 years.
, Mobitex is mainly used in Belgium, the Netherlands (both
RAM Mobile Data) (including network coverage of Luxembourg), Hong Kong (Telecom Digital Data Ltd), Canada (Rogers) and the US (AMS).
See also
*
Turbo dispatch
Turbo Dispatch is a public domain standard for the electronic transfer of job details, initially using packet radio, but now also using the internet. It is used throughout the United Kingdom to pass the details of stranded motorists between all ...
References
* Sven Lindmark: "Evolution of techno-economic systems (2002): an investigation of the history of mobile communications",
* Professional Recovery, December 2001, Partnership Publications
* Vehicle Recovery Link, May 1999, R K Solutions.
* Hagen's Heroes, a Green Flag Publication
External links
Turbo ExchangeMobitex TechnologyMobitex AssociationMobitex Terminal Specifications, article 1991
{{Mobile telecommunications standards
Open standards