The Global Certification Forum, known as GCF, is a London-based partnership between mobile network operators, mobile device manufacturers and the test industry. GCF was founded in 1999, and its membership has been responsible for creating an independent certification programme to help ensure global interoperability between mobile devices and networks. [1]
The GCF certification process is based on technical requirements as specified within dedicated test specifications provided by the 3GPP, 3GPP2, OMA, IMTC, the GSM Association and others. The current GCF membership includes mobile network operators, more than 40 leading terminal manufacturers and over 65 test equipment manufacturers, test laboratories and other organizations from mainly a test environment.
Recognised Test Organisations (RTO) [2] are GCF Members that have demonstrated they possess the experience, qualifications and systems to assess mobile phones and wireless devices against GCF's Certification Criteria.
The Conformance and Field Trial RTOs [3] are organisations to ensure quality compliance for devices per technical standards (e.g. 3GPP) and in industry guidelines for live networks (e.g. GSMA TS.11), respectively. A GCF-certified device is much more likely to perform its best as it would be configured to fit the “DNAs” of the network connected and have resolved any issue before its product launch. Therefore, GCF certification enhances the commercial success of a model as well as its brand owner in the fiercely competitive mobile market.
From 1 January 2013, it became a requirement that all device testing associated with GCF Certification must be undertaken by an RTO. The scheme recognises Test Organisations in three distinct disciplines: Conformance Testing, Field Trials and Interoperability Testing. To become an RTO, an organisation must submit a declaration confirming that it understands GCF procedures and has the ability to conduct testing in accordance with GCF rules and the relevant RTO requirements.
From 1 January 2015, GCF took over all certification activities previously handled by the CDMA Certification Forum (CCF). The current CEO is Lars Nielsen. [4]
The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a 3G mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP, UMTS is a component of the International Telecommunication Union IMT-2000 standard set and compares with the CDMA2000 standard set for networks based on the competing cdmaOne technology. UMTS uses wideband code-division multiple access (W-CDMA) radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency and bandwidth to mobile network operators.
A SIMcard is an integrated circuit (IC) intended to securely store an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) number and its related key, which are used to identify and authenticate subscribers on mobile telephone devices. SIMs are also able to store address book contacts information, and may be protected using a PIN code to prevent unauthorized use.
The International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) is a numeric identifier, usually unique, for 3GPP and iDEN mobile phones, as well as some satellite phones. It is usually found printed inside the battery compartment of the phone but can also be displayed on-screen on most phones by entering the MMI Supplementary Service code *#06#
on the dialpad, or alongside other system information in the settings menu on smartphone operating systems.
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a non-profit organization that owns the Wi-Fi trademark. Manufacturers may use the trademark to brand products certified for Wi-Fi interoperability. It is based in Austin, Texas.
Sepura Limited is a British telecommunications equipment provider that develops and supplies radio terminals, accessories and software applications for business and mission critical communications. The company specialises in Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) and LTE (telecommunication) technology.
OMA SpecWorks, previously the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), is a standards organization which develops open, international technical standards for the mobile phone industry. It is a nonprofit Non-governmental organization (NGO), not a formal government-sponsored standards organization as is the International Telecommunication Union (ITU): a forum for industry stakeholders to agree on common specifications for products and services.
The PTCRB was established in 1997 as the certification forum by select North American cellular operators. Now a pseudo-acronym, it no longer stands for its original meaning of the PCS Type Certification Review Board.
The Fixed-Mobile Convergence Alliance, formed in mid-2004, was a global non-profit organisation for improving products for providing convergence between fixed and mobile networks. The FMCA was incorporated as a not-for-profit association under New York law in August 2006. The Alliance had a membership base of 20 leading global telecom operators, most of which were integrated telecom operators owning both fixed and mobile networks. The included vendor affiliation programme made the operators able to work closely with the associate members, who were all telecommunication vendors.
CDMA Certification Forum was the original official authority governing CDMA Device certification. The CCF was an international partnership between network operator and device vendors to maintain and evolve a core global device certification process that helps improve quality through consistent interoperability, conformance and performance testing across the globe. On 31 December 2014, CCF voted to hand all its certification responsibilities to the Global Certification Forum (GCF).
Video Share is an IP Multimedia System (IMS) enabled service for mobile networks that allows users engaged in a circuit switch voice call to add a unidirectional video streaming session over the packet network during the voice call. Any of the parties on the voice call can initiate a video streaming session. There can be multiple video streaming sessions during a voice call, and each of these streaming sessions can be initiated by any of the parties on the voice call. The video source can either be the camera on the phone or a pre-recorded video clip.
The DTG is the association for British digital television broadcasters and annually publish and maintain the technical specifications for digital terrestrial television (DTT) in the United Kingdom, which is known as the D-Book and is used by Freeview, Freeview HD, FreeSat and YouView. The association consists of over 120 UK and international members who can participate in DTG activities to varying degrees, depending on their category of membership.
In telecommunications, long-term evolution (LTE) is a standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices and data terminals, based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA standards. It improves on those standards' capacity and speed by using a different radio interface and core network improvements. LTE is the upgrade path for carriers with both GSM/UMTS networks and CDMA2000 networks. Because LTE frequencies and bands differ from country to country, only multi-band phones can use LTE in all countries where it is supported.
The GSM Association is a non-profit industry organisation that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide. More than 750 mobile operators are full GSMA members and a further 400 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem are associate members.
The (U)SIM interface is the connecting point of the mobile phone and the UICC with its SIM or USIM application.
The Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance is a mobile telecommunications association of mobile operators, vendors, manufacturers and research institutes. It was founded by major mobile operators in 2006 as an open forum to evaluate candidate technologies to develop a common view of solutions for the next evolution of wireless networks. Its objective is to ensure the successful commercial launch of future mobile broadband networks through a roadmap for technology and friendly user trials. Its office is in Frankfurt, Germany.
Voice over Long-Term Evolution is an LTE high-speed wireless communication standard for voice calls and SMS using mobile phones and data terminals. VoLTE has up to three times more voice and data capacity than older 3G UMTS and up to six times more than 2G GSM. It uses less bandwidth because VoLTE's packet headers are smaller than those of unoptimized VoIP/LTE. VoLTE calls are usually charged at the same rate as other calls.
Narrowband Internet of things (NB-IoT) is a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) radio technology standard developed by 3GPP for cellular network devices and services. The specification was frozen in 3GPP Release 13, in June 2016. Other 3GPP IoT technologies include eMTC and EC-GSM-IoT.
Remote SIM provisioning is a specification realized by GSMA that allows consumers to remotely activate the subscriber identity module (SIM) embedded in a portable device such as a smart phone, smart watch, fitness band or tablet computer. The specification was originally part of the GSMA's work on eSIM and it is important to note that remote SIM provisioning is just one of the aspects that this eSIM specification includes. The other aspects being that the SIM is now structured into "domains" that separate the operator profile from the security and application "domains". In practise "eSIM upgrade" in the form of a normal SIM card is possible or eSIM can be included into an SOC. The requirement of GSMA certification is that personalisation packet is decoded inside the chip and so there is no way to dump Ki, OPc and 5G keys. Another important aspect is that the eSIM is owned by the enterprise, and this means that the enterprise now has full control of the security and applications in the eSIM, and which operators profiles are to be used.
oneM2M is a global partnership project founded in 2012 and constituted by 8 of the world's leading ICT standards development organizations, notably: ARIB (Japan), ATIS, CCSA (China), ETSI (Europe), TIA (USA), TSDSI (India), TTA (Korea) and TTC (Japan). The goal of the organization is to create a global technical standard for interoperability concerning the architecture, API specifications, security and enrolment solutions for Machine-to-Machine and IoT technologies based on requirements contributed by its members.
LTE-M or LTE-MTC is a type of low-power wide-area network radio communication technology standard developed by 3GPP for machine-to-machine and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. LTE-M includes eMTC, also known as LTE Cat-M1, whose specification was frozen in 3GPP Release 13, in June 2016.