The GCF is celebrating 25 years of certification programs to help the industry to deploy new technologies from GSM to 5G, with an impressive catalogue of more than 9000 cellular wireless communication devices certified - from 245 manufacturers.

In his article to mark this important anniversary, Lars Nielsen - GCF CEO and General Manager, allowed himself a retrospective glance at some of the pivotal moments in the GCF’s evolution towards having 350 member organizations bringing a growing diversity of handsets, smartphones, modules, routers… to be GCF certified.

Nielsen recalls the evolving nature of certification and the growing complexity that arrived with the transition from 3G towards LTE and 5G devices.  As a result of the twenty-five years of dedicated effort, the GCF today hosts the most comprehensive database of test information for devices implementing 3GPP standards on the planet.

Looking forward to the next 25 years, he asserts: “GCF has constantly adapted over time and will continue to do so in the future. We follow ever-changing markets, thanks to the contributions of our members, and the availability of the standards in SDOs. As the 6th generation of Mobile Communications (6G) is being defined, GCF is well prepared to deliver certification programs for the upcoming generations of mobile technology, as it has been doing since it started with 2G.”

See the GCF News story: 25 years of GCF - Helping the telecom industry to connect mobile devices and networks seamlessly since 1999. 

Some key facts:

(Source GCF article)

• GCF is today a key stakeholder in the mobile world, with strong and close cooperation with GSMA requirements, ETSI and 3GPP standards. GCF became a 3GPP Market Representation Partner in 2016.
• Currently, the number of GCF members has grown to 170 manufacturers, 127 operators, and 55 observer companies, mostly representing the test industry.
• GCF now has 67 conformance testing laboratories, known as recognised test organisations (RTOs), in 11 countries, and 39 field trials laboratories (field trial RTOs) in 10 countries.
• The number of Work Items (areas that can be certified individually, linked or not to specific frequency bands) has grown above 1,300 over the years, with over 88,000 test cases validated, over 55,000 validations of test cases and specific frequency band combinations and over 130 active test platforms from 14 different test equipment vendors covering all different technologies.

https://www.globalcertificationforum.org/