Open Source Mobile Communications

Today, the OpenBSC project announces a licensing change from GPLv2+ to AGPLv3+.

The reasoning behind this license change is simple: OpenBSC is developed as Free Software in a collaborative, community-driven process. Anyone running a GSM network using OpenBSC should be mandated to release any modifications to the OpenBSC codebase to the general public - even if the actual OpenBSC software is never distributed in the sense of the GPLv2/GPLv3.

From our point of view, the AGPL makes much more sense for software used to operate communications networks than the plain GPL. Other projects like OpenBTS have already adopted AGPLv3 in the past, following the same rationale.

For more details about the AGPL, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html

If you want to use OpenBSC to operate a network and are unsure about licensing issues, please contact ​laforge@gnumonks.org

The OpenBSC field test at the 27th annual Chaos Communication Congress was a huge sucess. While a full report is still being prepared, statistics from the OpenBSC-based GSM network at the event can be found at FieldTests_27c3

Lots of bugs have been discovered and fixed under the high load conditions at the event. Not all of them are part of the master branch in the git repository yet, but they will all be there soon.

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Like in the OpenBSC case, this OsmocomBB blog is merely intended as a news feed.