[HD123]

Telus, Bell to switch cellphone technology: report

That article states that Bell and Telus (the 2 CDMA carriers in Canada) will most likely be following the lead of other few remaining CDMA carriers around the world (Australia, South Korea)and switching to GSM. The article points out valid reasons as to why; such as people switching carriers for better phones (BOLD, iphone, Nokia), CDMA carriers missing out on the roaming income, people being able to switch carriers and use their phones still etc....
They left out the most important fact.. better technology.. capable of faster data speeds.....data & voice at the same time..

For how long will Verizon and Sprint be the last ones.

[paulrosenthal]

VZW and Sprint have big networks, which took a lot of money and time to build up. I would think that it will be the dominate network for these carriers for a while. They just recently (February) cancelled out their old analog networks. The rumor is that 4G networks (LTE) will only be for data purposes, so it will be a hybrid network.

Paul

[HD123]

Canada is a pretty big country, and Telus and Bell have spent a lot of money as well on having their network in a lot of places. Still looks like they are jumping ship. It just seems to be that first initial step of spending a lot of money on the switch but then everyone wins, the carrier and the consumer. More competition, more phones, better pricing for comsumers.

[paulrosenthal]

Canada is a pretty big country, and Telus and Bell have spent a lot of money as well on having their network in a lot of places. Still looks like they are jumping ship. It just seems to be that first initial step of spending a lot of money on the switch but then everyone wins, the carrier and the consumer. More competition, more phones, better pricing for comsumers.

Where am I located here in the USA, Verizon dominates in the best coverage available. To build a new GSM network might take a while to match the current coverage that Verizon's CDMA network has.

Paul

[justagirl]

As a vzw employee I can tell you the thought of switching to gsm is very far from vzw's mind

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[paulrosenthal]

As a vzw employee I can tell you the thought of switching to gsm is very far from vzw's mind

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

JustAGirl, I have a quick question for you. What about the LTE 4G network? Have you heard that it will be data only and devices will hybrid CDMA and LTE?

Paul

[HD123]

Where am I located here in the USA, Verizon dominates in the best coverage available. To build a new GSM network might take a while to match the current coverage that Verizon's CDMA network has.

Paul

Ya I know what you are saying. I was wondering how they would do it, but after seeing that... i want to look into it further because I am sure there has to be a way of them upgrading/changing the current network. it just cant be feasible to build a network from scratch.

[HD123]

As a vzw employee I can tell you the thought of switching to gsm is very far from vzw's mind

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Cant be too far, sooner or later. Just a matter of time. Its either now or later.

I can see mobile manufacturers even trying to get them to switch, because they wont be happy about having to research, develop and manufacture handsets which will work on only 2 carriers in the whole world.

[paulrosenthal]

Cant be too far, sooner or later. Just a matter of time. Its either now or later.

I can see mobile manufacturers even trying to get them to switch, because they wont be happy about having to research, develop and manufacture handsets which will work on only 2 carriers in the whole world.

Keep in mind a lot of small carriers here in the USA use CDMA. US Cellular, Alltel, and not to mention MVNO networks like Helio, Virgin Mobile, Page Plus, etc.

Paul

[HD123]

Keep in mind a lot of small carriers here in the USA use CDMA. US Cellular, Alltel, and not to mention MVNO networks like Helio, Virgin Mobile, Page Plus, etc.

Paul

Correct, Sorry, I should have said for CDMA users in only 1 country in the world.

However I assume they do the same as in Canada and rent capacity off the major carriers like sprint or verizon? So one would assume they would do the same if there was a switch, right?

[paulrosenthal]

Correct, I assume they do the same as in Canada and rent capacity off the major carriers like sprint or verizon? So one would assume they would do the same if there was a switch, right?

Well, I guess they would probably have too. They would be networkless lol. Not sure how they would operate.

[HD123]

Well, I guess they would probably have too. They would be networkless lol. Not sure how they would operate.

Exactly, and I bet those smaller carriers will also be happy about having a bigger selection of phones available for customers. They dont have to wait anymore for Verizon or sprints exclusivity to be over on any of the ''10'' CDMA phones out at a time.

everyone's happy.

[paulrosenthal]

Most of the MVNOs around here just have very basic phones. They sell for less than $50...I just bought a phone for $9.99 for someone at a retail store. It was CDMA.

Paul

[HD123]

The only thing CDMA had going for it was better reception but that is something that will change and that gap will get smaller and smaller. I noticed a huge difference when I was home in Canada in terms of the reception on my gsm handset compared to the year before. It was noticeably much better. I couldn't believe it, I even had reception where my friend with cdma didn't. Thats a first.... for me.

[HD123]

As a vzw employee I can tell you the thought of switching to gsm is very far from vzw's mind

Actually, looks like back in December they announced otherwise.
Verizon opts for LTE mobile technology from Europe

We can add Verizon and altel to the list of carriers jumping ship. LTE is the next generation of UMTS/w-CDMA (GSM).

"Alltel, Verizon, the newly formed China Telecom/Unicom and Japan's KDDI have announced they have chosen LTE as their 4G network technology. This is significant, because these are CDMA carriers and are switching networking technologies to match what will likely be the 4G standard worldwide. [16] They have chosen to take the natural GSM evolution path as opposed to the 3GPP2 CDMA evolution path UMB."

"US mobile operator Verizon Wireless is planning to switch its network technology from US-based CDMA2000 to European-based W-CDMA when it rolls out its next-generation broadband network."

[paulrosenthal]

Actually, looks like back in December they announced otherwise.
Verizon opts for LTE mobile technology from Europe

We can add Verizon and altel to the list of carriers jumping ship. LTE is the next generation of UMTS/w-CDMA (GSM).

"Alltel, Verizon, the newly formed China Telecom/Unicom and Japan's KDDI have announced they have chosen LTE as their 4G network technology. This is significant, because these are CDMA carriers and are switching networking technologies to match what will likely be the 4G standard worldwide. [16] They have chosen to take the natural GSM evolution path as opposed to the 3GPP2 CDMA evolution path UMB."

"US mobile operator Verizon Wireless is planning to switch its network technology from US-based CDMA2000 to European-based W-CDMA when it rolls out its next-generation broadband network."

Actually, GSM and LTE are different. LTE is definitely not a GSM standard. They are only the same in the fact that they use SIM cards. Not to argue or anything.

[HD123]

no arguments, enlighten me.
Because I am confused then.... all the articles and wiki say LTE is the evolution of UMTS WCDMA/ European standard, which is GSM

[paulrosenthal]

no arguments, enlighten me.
Because I am confused then.... all the articles and wiki say LTE is the evolution of UMTS WCDMA/ European standard, which is GSM

I'm honestly confused. Didn't know as much as I thought. I'll try and research this further, and maybe you can, too, and we can enlighten each other.

Paul

[paulrosenthal]

Copied from JTA1188 on this forum:

LTE is not the "GSM" standard. It's an entirely different technology altogether. There is no "official" GSM 4G technology, nor is there an "official" CDMA 4G technology. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Alltel (before being purchased by Verizon) had all committed to LTE for their 4G technology. Sprint committed to WiMAX, if that's what you're referring to. Qualcomm tried to develop a 4G technology FOR current CDMA carriers, but they've pretty much had karma bite them in the *** for making things difficult on CDMA in the past, as no major carrier has chosen their technology.

[HD123]

But paul, all the articles and wiki are saying that it is the next evolution of umts, which is GSM. LTE is even listed under the GSM/3GPP section.

Ohh... and its listed as pre-3G, not even 4G. Other people on the forums keep saying LTE is 4G so I went with it.

[paulrosenthal]

But paul, all the articles and wiki are saying that it is the next evolution of umts, which is GSM. LTE is even listed under the GSM/3GPP section.

Ohh... and its listed as pre-3G, not even 4G. Other people on the forums keep saying LTE is 4G so I went with it.

Okay, thanks!

I think you may be right, well, you most definitely are. See, I thought that it was different from GSM in some way or another, besides speed. Maybe not...

Paul

[nqbeam]

As another vzw employee i agree with justagirl that gsm is not anywhere in our near future as far as voice coverage is concerned. The "gsm" that you are referring to is for our 4G LTE network for data speeds. Not voice. From what i believe/understand is that at this point we want to put our focus on the growth of of data network and broadband speeds throughout the country. as some of us know our voice coverage is second to none so that will improve but we arent switching our phones to gsm. that would be almost backwards as far as a business idea is concerned. there is already too much money invested in cdma for vzw to abandon it altogether.

[HD123]

thats not what the press releases are saying.......

[Pellam]

Cant be too far, sooner or later. Just a matter of time. Its either now or later.

I can see mobile manufacturers even trying to get them to switch, because they wont be happy about having to research, develop and manufacture handsets which will work on only 2 carriers in the whole world.

Even if these Canadian carriers do switch to GSM, VZW and Sprint will not be the last two CDMA providers in the world. I am not sure how current this is, but here's a list of CDMA providers worldwide. As to LTE, VZW has committed to it and will likely use it for both voice and data, but it's really too early to speculate because there are things still to be finalized regarding LTE.

[Go Blue]

Tata is deploying CDMA like mad in India, the fastest growing wireless market in the world. In every city you go to there are 4 to 6 GSM carriers, but CDMA growing there rapidly. It is not just isolated to 2 companies in the US and a few in Canada. Haven't tried roaming there with CDMA -- can't beat GSM for international roaming utility. My personal belief is that while it will never dominate globally like GSM, it will continue for localized markets (and local may mean national or regional or continental) where international roaming isn't an issue. Really now -- how many people on this forum (a rather techie cut of all mobile phone users) really ever have the need for international compatibility. How many of the 250 million or so other mobile phones in the US really ever cross a border? CDMA can roam just fine, it's just that the global providers chose GSM 10 years ago, that's not going to change, and there's simply no infrastructure or roaming agreements to make it work. It's the environment not the technical capability.