CDMA vs GSM

What are the main Advantages / Disadvantages and differences of CDMA
vs GSM Cellular systems. Is one comparably better then the other?

In article <804d24fe-b529-445d-a256-8d51a0103eef@i7g2000prf.googlegroups.com>, Tim wrote:
> What are the main Advantages / Disadvantages and differences of CDMA
> vs GSM Cellular systems. Is one comparably better then the other?

You want a war? thats like asking which is more popular NASCAR or NFL
football!

Kidding aside. heres my opinion. I use GSM and CDMA here so I have
first hand expirence with both.

GSM is a more popular Global cellular standard. it uses SIM chips,
this allows you to swap phones like you swap shoes. You remove your
chip from one phone and place it in another. GSM works both in the U.S
and the rest of the world. Unfortunatly in the U.S GSM does not have
much popularity in the hinterlands. I am unsure why that is but if you
are in the middle of Kansas, you need CDMA or Analog

CDMA is a closed proprietary standard designed by Qualcomm. This
standard does NOT use SIM cards in the U.S version and in the Asian
version they use R-UIM chips (they look and act like SIM chips.). Some
say CDMA calls sound better. I don't see that being always the case.
U.S and Asian CDMA phones are not compatible because of frequencies.
CDMA has some small pockets of popularity in Europe, however, again,
the frequencies make U.S and Asian phones useless. Qualcomm also
charges high per unit licensing fees to manufactuers and cellular
service providers. GSM, oth is an Open standard and does not charge
these fees.


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B'ichela wrote:

> GSM is a more popular Global cellular standard. it uses SIM chips,
> this allows you to swap phones like you swap shoes. You remove your
> chip from one phone and place it in another. GSM works both in the U.S
> and the rest of the world. Unfortunatly in the U.S GSM does not have
> much popularity in the hinterlands. I am unsure why that is but if you
> are in the middle of Kansas, you need CDMA or Analog
>
> CDMA is a closed proprietary standard designed by Qualcomm. This
> standard does NOT use SIM cards in the U.S version and in the Asian
> version they use R-UIM chips (they look and act like SIM chips.). Some
> say CDMA calls sound better. I don't see that being always the case.
> U.S and Asian CDMA phones are not compatible because of frequencies.

This is not true for Asia, except for Japan. In most other Asian and
countries with CDMA, there is 800 MHz coverage: Korea (800 MHz and 1700
MHz) China (800 MHz and soon 2100 MHz), India (800 MHz), Israel (800
MHz), Taiwan(800 MHz). Japan may launch a 800 MHz CDMA 2000 system soon,
but it's not available yet.

In Europe, a lot of the CDMA is at 450 MHz.

See "http://www.cdg.org/worldwide/index.asp"

In any case, for those that care about the widest coverage in the U.S.,
the carrier of choice is Verizon, with a CDMA/AMPS phone (even though
the urban areas will lose AMPS soon, the rural areas will keep it going
for quite a while).

I just bring a GSM phone with me when I travel to Europe or most of
Asia, and use a prepaid SIM card.