The GSM Association, aka “the GSMA”, is the power behind the Mobile World Congress, and the prior “3GSM”, the former “GSM Congress” and the first “GSMA Plenaries” over the last 20 years of its existence.

The ramp up of the organization’s reach and influence has been under the leadership of Rob Conway, a former Motorola executive, the CEO of the GSMA since 1999. It is Conway that deserves much of the credit, as well as taken the heat of criticism of, for what the GSMA has become–the sine qua non global trade organisation for the mobile world. Given the initiatives he has pushed forward over his tenure he rightfully deserves part of the credit of the domination of GSM as a standard ( 840 GSM opertors and only 160 CDMA ) providing service to 85% of the world’s mobile phone users. Much is often covered of the bitz and bites of technology and whatever is new, but the GSMA is a reflection as much about harvesting the power of technology as it is about power politics and the influence of large companies. The board members consisting of the governing body of the GSMA reflect the largest operators in the world including Vodafone, China Mobile, Turkcell, Orascom, Bharti Airtel, NTT DoCoMo, Telefonica O2, SingTel, ATT, KTF, and TIM.

The central voting membership of the GSMA is GSM operators only, but more than 180 manufacturers and suppliers are members of the Association’s initiatives being key partners as “Associate Members.” Verizon and Sprint of the US are not members, but other original CDMA operators are such as NTT DoCoMo of Japan, and SKT of Korea are now since they have GSM apsects of their 3G networks. Even the first ATT Wireless, a TDMA operator as part of MaBell actually petitioned for special observer status back in the early 00s since it didn’t want to be on the side line of the global mobile industry body.

Clearly, Conway’s vision is the major driver behind the financial success of the GSMA’s sponsored events around the world which includes the control and production of the Mobile World Congress events in Barcelona and Asian-angled MWC Macau launched last November. Shifting the focus of the events from the original carrier limited engineering and international roaming discussions, Conway moved the emphasis to a traditional trade revenue driving event to be held in Cannes soon after his arrival in ‘99. The 3GSM events exploded there, and the limiting confines of Cannes quickly posed a barrier to larger commercial opportunities, which controversially shifted the event to Barcelona starting in 2005. Simultaneously he clawed back GSMA events control from the global conference and research provider Informa, and now the MWC events are fully a profit center within the GSMA. A massive one in fact which probably eclipses the membership fees which are a sliding upwards scale based on revenues generated.

What was initially considered a staid, operator engineering “talkshop” (after attending my first plenary in 1997, I ironically characterized it to my boss, as “Congress without its swift consideration of issues.”) Now the MWC is THE mobile industry event, and through the regional series for developing markets the ComWorld Series no one misses the opportunity to engage at a GSM oriented event.

Nothing comes close to the scale, breadth and depth of analysis, and variety of attendees literally from every corner of the globe as the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress, now with celebrities the likes of Robert Redford, Isabella Rossellini, Bollywood actress Sherlyn Chopra, and Black Eyed Peas founder WILL. I. AM as part of the mobile industry fabric. As a personal reflection of that, through serendipity on Wednesday I was within 15 feet of Redford as he spoke of the impact of mobile on film and his initiatives to capture mobile film making talent through his Sundance Institute. Later that night I fell into a spontaneously organized tapas dinner which included industry executives from the US (me), South Africa, Dubai, Zimbwabe, UK, Czech Republic, Brunei, China, and Australia. Interestingly we all had a common connection beyond the mobile industry. Its a great business if you’ve got a global perspecitve.

At this year’s GSMA’s CEO Keynote, Conway covered what are the GSMA’s core messages: impact of social nteworking, LTE (long term evolution), mobile broadband, data usage factors, protecting young consumers, and the ever present “Green.”

Framing his comments with the continuing huge growth experienced in the mobile industry globally, Conway’s highlights include a view that despite changes in the surounding economic climates around the world, GSM’s growth is “propelling wholly new dimensions from social networking and enterntainment to environmental” arenas.

Reflecting the core technology, he reiterated that the GSMA Board’s strategy is to use LTE to deliver mobile broadband and that the GSMA will embarce all who do so, including CDMA operators. He referred to WiMax as a “niche access technology that he trusts will be complimentary” to LTE. Proof that the technology wars still have their skirmishes.

It is the GSMA’s belief that the tipping point for HSPA Mobile Broadband has been reached not only in mature markets but also in emerging ones. He pointed to over 160 operators having already deployed the technology and another 160 operators having already deployed the technolgoy and aontehr 67 set for deployemtn providing access speeds of 3.6Mb/s, with another 420 HSPA enabled devices already available, and growing fast. If you sitll wonder if WiMax has any big play traction, check out KTF’s differentiated services in Korea as a reflection of the power of HSPA vs WiMax as well as how in South Africa MTN’s mobile broadband connects the unconnected.

On innovation, Conway identified the GSMA achievement of working with Microsoft to identify the global untapped market for the sub $1,000 notebook market with embedded HSPA, blazing a trail for a “whole new device category - mobile broadband networks.” (Although a significant piece of that is also due to the likes of Intel that are working with banks around the world such as HSBC in India to provide low monthly payment rates to purchase a laptop). He also highlighted the establishment of the GSMA Innovation office being established in Atlanta last year.

The GSMA loves these initiatives — they deflty enable them to help shape and define the regulatory market by forcing industry players to take action and thus shape public opinion back on the regulators and the market. Be proactive not reactive when it comes to dealing with standards bodies and governments. The Association’s new Horizon Phone initiative, and the new Mobile Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Content are two new ones this year. Past initiatives including dotMobi top line domain registration, personal instant messaging initiative, and mobile money transfer.

He concluded on two different points that reflect how far things have changed since the original GSMA efforts to promote the GSM standard as the global brand tended to focus the event on carriers, handsets, and infrastrcuture providers. Outlining how mobile is making great strides as an entertainment platform, he announced the launch of the Mofilm initiative which he called a “unique forum” to connect with the film industry ecosystem.

The GSMA is partnering with Mofilm to present a short film showcase for mobile phones, including cutting-edge new films from world-leading film festivals and content providers.
The partnership follows the success of last year’s experimental Sundance Film Festival – Global Short Film Project–a collaborative pilot between Sundance Institute and the GSMA that stimulated excitement in the opportunities for independent, cinematic short films for the 4th screen.

Mofilm has uniquely brought together the Festival De Cannes Short Film Corner, Sundance Channel, the Shanghai International Film Festival, and the Festival del Film Locarno, as well as leading Bollywood content provider Hungama Mobile, to showcase an international collection of short films on mobile devices. Covers all the regional bases of the globe there.

A closing note on environmental issues, the GSMA is using its Development Fund to catalyse action and raise awareness of what the industry can do for the benefit of the environment. (This was a major aspect of China Mobile’s CEO comments as well.) Given that we are close to 3.2 billion mobile communicators in the world, where do you think those handsets are going after two years use?

The GSMA isn’t about HLRs, base station subsystems, and IMEIs anymore.