So I was reading Nokia: The Inside Story on the train this morning - an interesting but rather dry account of Nokia's history - when at the top of page 129 I saw:

On July 1, 1991 Europe's first GSM network, supplied by Nokia, will be inaugurated.

Thirteen years is a long time in technology terms, during which GSM phones have gone from suitcase sized to shirt pocketable. In this period over 1 billion people have become GSM users and 700 networks provide them with telephony. Truly a revolution.

The first 3G networks went live almost two years ago, so arguably we have another 3-4 years before they become as ubiquitous as GSM and 8-9 before they start looking old hat, or do we?

I've written more about GSM's birthday on Mobitopia - thanks to Glass for the Finnish translation of Happy Birthday GSM to the formidable Hyvää Syntymäpäivää GSM!