CACrown ArchivesHistory · sources · collections
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Osmocom

project working on open implementations for popular mobile communication standards

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 28, 2025
Entity authorityQ67038622
Source-derived summary

Osmocom (open source mobile communications) is an open-source software project that implements multiple mobile communication standards, including GSM, DECT, TETRA and others.

History and usage

In 2008 Harald Welte and Dieter Spaar experimented with a base transceiver station (BTS) from Siemens that was end-of-life and implemented the BSC side of the A-bis protocol, which eventually turned into OpenBSC. After attracting more interest, support for other BTS models was added. The first release of the OpenBSC project took place at the 25th Chaos Communication Congress held in December 2008.

In the following years, the software has been used at various hacker cons such as the Chaos Communication Congress, Chaos Communication Camp and Electromagnetic Field to provide a cellular network.

In 2010, a telephone-side implementation of the GSM stack was developed, named OsmocomBB. Together with OpenBSC, these projects became part of the new Osmocom umbrella project.

The Sysmocom GmbH company was founded by Welte and Holger Freyther in 2011 to provide commercial support.

Since 2018 Osmocom software and Sysmocom hardware has been used in Villa Talea de Castro in Mexico to provide a cellular network to around 3500 people.

Osmocom software has been used in research projects.

Projects

OpenBSC

OpenBSC was a project to develop a free software implementation of GSM protocol stack and elements. It runs on Linux and requires an E1 interface (ISDN Primary Rate Interface, via mISDN).

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Osmocom” as project working on open implementations for popular mobile communication standards. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2008, 2010, 2011, 2018—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Osmocom, project and working can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as project working on open implementations for popular mobile communication standards. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 28, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q67038622. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2018.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Osmocom”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Osmocom primary sources, Osmocom archive and Osmocom research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Osmocom”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Osmocom” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.