Backhaul, December 2015 — the industry 25 and 10 years ago

25 YEARS AGO. The cover of the August/September 1991 issue of What’s New in Radio Communications featured the Hewlett-Packard HP 8920A RF communications test set, which packed a whopping 22 different instruments into the one unit. Elsewhere in the magazine, we reported on Hutchison Telecommunications buying the Motorola Message Express Paging business in Australia; the world’s first GSM network tests (in Finland and Sweden); and a doubling of AARNet’s satellite internet link (via OTC) bandwidth from 128 to 256 kbps (it had been just 56 kbps the year before). Rockwell Systems Australia had won a $2 million contract to supply HF radios to the RAAF for its C-130 aircraft, and Queensland’s Redland Shire awarded Philips a $140,000 contract for PRM80-series mobile radios.

10 YEARS AGO. The cover of the July/August 2006 issue of Radio Comms Asia-Pacific featured a promotional picture from Pacific Wireless Communications, a firm that had been established just three years earlier. PWC was spruiking the RDX 3588 rapid deployment transponder and a range of accessories, such as remote speaker microphones and batteries. We reported on Daniels Electronics signing an agreement with Motorola to have the former’s P25 base stations and repeaters sold throughout Australia and New Zealand. The ACMA and RMIT were offering short courses (aimed at the public, apparently) covering topics such as CDMA, TETRA, Bluetooth, APCO, GPS, 3G and so on. Tait Electronics was reported to have completed an upgrade of the Victorian StateNet Mobile Radio network, under contract to Telstra. And the Zeon trunked, high-speed digital network was due to begin operating in Sydney and Brisbane, having already been switched on in Melbourne.

Pictured: The HP 8920A test set.