The capacity of mobile cellular radio networks can be considerably inc
reased if a higher level of cochannel interference can be tolerated. A
n adaptive antenna combines the outputs of an array of elements to max
imise the wanted signal and suppress interfering signals, The author p
roposes an adaptive antenna algorithm suitable for GSM and the urban m
ultipath environment, The algorithm is based on iterative reference si
gnal reconstruction from the GSM training sequence. The average error
rate is obtained by simulation for four equal power interfering signal
s and an urban GSM multipath model, An adaptive antenna can only pract
ically be deployed at the base station, Realising its gains in a real
network on both the up and downlinks requires, for the downlink, a num
ber of techniques, This is discussed and a concept of how the full cap
acity gains can be achieved in an evolutionary manner on both links is
proposed, The concept is equally applicable to the DCS 1800 and DCS 1
900 systems based on GSM.