World's First Voice Call From a Free GSM Stack

zycx writes "As Dieter Spaar has pointed out in a mailing list post on the OsmocomBB developer list, he has managed to get a first alpha version of TCH (Traffic Channel) code released, supporting the FR and EFR GSM codecs. What this means, in human readable language: He can actually make voice calls from a mobile phone that runs the Free Software OsmocomBB GSM stack on its baseband processor. This is a major milestone in the history of the project."

Comments

GSM Full Rate patent

[tepples]

I thought the GSM voice codecs were patented by Philips, as described in this page about an otherwise Free implementation of GSM FR.

Re:GSM Full Rate patent

[GNUALMAFUERTE]

It is in fact the main codec used in most of my Asterisk systems. The implementation is 100% Free Software. Is it patent-free? No. But nobody has sued anybody so far, mainly because the big guys don't see its use in VoIP as a threat to their big-ass systems used in GSM networks. Now, this might be a different situation.

Pardon me, but....

[WED Fan]

Pardon me, but what does this really mean? Does this mean that we could develop our out cell phones, a kind of born unlocked? Would this allow us to create our own devices that include GSM without relying upon the industry providing us feature sets we don't want or need?

Is this really historic, or just a really nerdy, geeky milestone?

In other words: What will this do for me?

Re:Pardon me, but....

[pyr0r0ck3r]

If I'm reading correctly, yes, eventually you could roll your own phone using completely open source stuff - hw and sw. What I'm less clear on is how the signal is being carried. Granted, I didn't read too in depth, but you still need a carrier to allow your phone on their network, no?

Re:Pardon me, but....

[drinkypoo]

What this means is that it is now theoretically possible to have a phone with zero closed source code. So far all phones have had at least proprietary radio module code.

Re:Pardon me, but....

[Gruturo]

You must have GSM confused with CDMA2000. In GSM, as I understand it, carriers don't allow handsets on their network; they allow SIMs on their network.

Not quite. The phone has to be allowed as well, its maker and model are sort of embedded in its IMEI and there are blacklist (not just for stolen handsets, but also for models with critical radio flaws which would not work or even disrupt the network in their vicinity while operating).

Re:Pardon me, but....

[jack2000]

Your phone could just LIE about it's IMEI, as i see it if it's all open source you can make it return whatever IMEI you want.

Re:Pardon me, but....

[Shoe Puppet]

I bet you can fake the IMEI if you control the GSM stack.

Re:Pardon me, but....

[dave420]

Which is illegal in some places, such as the UK.

Re:Pardon me, but....

[tepples]

If you start working on that phone now, you might even get a few months use out of it once you're finished. Don't expect too many GSM networks to still be around in a few years time.

Keeping GSM turned on is the only way that can AT&T's Christo-inspired TV commercial can claim 97% coverage. There's no way that AT&T will have UMTS everywhere and that even the cheap GoPhone handsets will support UMTS by the time it deploys LTE.

Re:Pardon me, but....

[Thomas Shaddack]

It's illegal only if you get caught. Which, if you don't cause significant billing or technical anomalies, is rather infinitesimally low chance. I'd say well-worth the risk.

Congratulations!

[gweihir]

Sounds like a pretty impressive feat. Shows that talented, dedicated individuals collaborating in a small group are still by far the most effective way to create software. All that "process" and "management" BS can do is decrease the performance of talented people. And with untalented ones, the final product will always suck, no matter what "process" or "management method" is used.

Got more links about GSM patents?

[ciaran_o_riordan]

If you've any other links, I'd like to add them here:

http://en.swpat.org/wiki/GSM

First Call

[Nerdfest]

"Mr Stallman, come here, I want to see you!".

Re:IMEI blacklisting practices

[Gruturo]

The white/black/grey lists are held in the EIR (Equipment Identity Register), which may or may not exist at all (it's optional, some providers don't have one) and is sometimes integrated within the HLR

This is an explanation (a bit dated, but still) of how to decode manufacturer code, country code, approval code etc from the IMEI: http://www.cellular.co.za/ieminumbers.htm

More info (just relevant stuff which came up googling "imei hlr eir"):
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/technology/wireless/TCH_WIR/612218-35166861
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/technology/wireless/TCH_WIR/608687-35166861
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/HLR#EIR

Brief description of the (global?) IMEI DB at the gsmworld site: http://www.gsmworld.com/our-work/programmes-and-initiatives/fraud-and-security/imei_database.htm

Well

[ledow]

According to the all-knowing Wiki: "phase I of the GSM specifications were published in 1990"

So, depending on your point of view:

- it's taken 20 years to implement something that had a published standard and worldwide, cheap hardware examples used by millions of people every day.

- the standards took 20 years for an outsider to be able to implement them independently.

And we're still only talking alpha code with specialised hardware.

Re:Well

[blair1q]

Actually, it's been done dozens of times before.

By people who had proprietary knowledge enabling them to use the hardware properly, and hardware to do it on.

The software is not that special, and the system isn't either.

It's constructing the electronics that are capable of doing all the things needed to get the job done that slows you down.

Big companies have $billions to invest in making complex micro-gadgets that they can sell for a $thousand each other big companies who can find millions of little people to rent them for a $hundred a month to send sexts and tweets. You expect things to get done in that business model.

People with the word "free" in their corporate charter, not so much.

Besides, there were other things we wanted to get done.

Re:Well

[Man On Pink Corner]

One of the reasons it took 20 years is that for most of that time, you had to be (or pay) both a hardcore software dev guy and a hardcore RF guy to even think about trying. Now, GNU Radio and other low-cost SDR platforms have largely taken care of the RF side. That is something that will remain true no matter what kind of obscure protocols the carriers adopt for their next generation phones.

Put another way, it's now just another software problem, and we all know how much that changes the development picture. Instead of 100 basement hackers around the world with the means to tackle problems like this, there are now 10,000,000.

Phreaking

[uvajed_ekil]

A new era of phreaking is just around the corner, with commodity hardware, free software, and the will to continue to hack service networks. We're not there yet, but it is looking more and more like we may get there. Not a modern day equivalent of the good ol' blue box yet, but we'll keep trying.