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What is the difference?

Dennis2115

Jan 3, 2004, 12:32 PM
I recently started working PT at Radio Shack. We offer both Sprint and Verizon in our region. I hear things from time-to-time that I believe to be "repeated" without verification. For example...I am told that GSM is "lousy", or "there are all kinds of problems with GSM."

Is this due to the fact that neither Sprint nor Verizon offer GSM, or is it true that there are "all kinds of problems" with GSM?

Are there ANY Cell providers in the US that offer true world-wide service...well world-wide whereever there IS service?

Thanks,
Dennis
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MarkF

Jan 4, 2004, 4:52 PM
Seems to me that those are totally uneducated comments by "salesmen" that don't have a grasp of wireless (or any other) technology. Then again coming from RS I'm not suprised.

To answer your question with a question, do you think if GSM was flawed would all of Europe be utilizing GSM technology as their major wireless platform? Somehow I doubt it.

T-Mobile can provide GSM phones that will work out of the continental USA.

Mark
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Dennis2115

Jan 5, 2004, 6:51 AM
Mark,

Thanks for the reply.

The manager of our particular store is not "totally uneducated." Unfortunately, he may be too easily swayed by the company and this is perhaps due to working with RS for so long.

I was suspect of the information, therefore I came here to get a good answer.

That being said, the answer you gave is not factual, rather anecdotal and one which I cannot use to dispute the RS line.

Do you know where I might obtain facts or statistics?

Thank you,
Dennis
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95mike

Jan 5, 2004, 1:55 PM
To most people, there is no difference between gsm and cdma. The bandwidths are very similar and the clarity is close enough to not tell the difference (more phone model itself than anything). The first major US GSM company Voicestream gave GSM a bad rap. A lot of dropped calls occured, echo, and other bugs that were the fault of Voicestream not GSM itself. I'm not very technical as far as the technologies themselves go, but cdma on the surface might have a very small advantage over GSM (being an evolution of TDMA). It's more of an issue of what the company using the technology does with it than the technology itself.

Maybe you should ask your manager why he thinks GSM is lousy?
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Dennis2115

Jan 5, 2004, 2:45 PM
Thanks for the reply.

What technology and company exists for a cell phone user in the US to be able to carry his/her cell phone abroad and use it? GSM or CDMA? Or something entirely different?
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95mike

Jan 5, 2004, 6:19 PM
Get a world phone (tri-mode GSM) on Cingular, T-Mobile, or ATT for most countries. CDMA is used some places in Asia and Europe (I know Sprint works in some other countries). Not too sure about the rest of the continents or Verizon's international coverage.
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mmdstech

Jan 5, 2004, 7:26 PM
Not trying to be a smart ass, but there is no such thing as a tri mode gsm handset. There are dual band gsm phones. Tri mode refers to a phone that can access a digital protocol (tdma or cdma) on both 1900 and 800 bands, as well as 800 analog. A dual band phone allows a phone to operate on 800 and 1900mhz.
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95mike

Jan 5, 2004, 7:46 PM
There are tri-band GSM phones such as the T616 that uses 850/1800/1900. I know that most people use tri-mode to describe cdma 800/1900/amps, but I think you could guess what I meant by tri-mode GSM.
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leaps19

Jan 7, 2004, 12:48 AM
AWS has NEC phones that run off 4 different bands of GSM radio frequency Internationally.
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mmdstech

Jan 5, 2004, 7:44 PM
My bad, I forgot about the gate phone. Though I have never seen one, or know anyone who has one. Is there several makers of this phone? All I have heard is that they can work on 1900/800 gsm and tdma networks. Does anyone have any info on this? Thanks
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95mike

Jan 5, 2004, 7:49 PM
There are only 2 I know of on Cingular. One is a Nokia and I forget the other one. I know nothing of plans that work with them because they don't even offer tdma or amps on the west coast.
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mmdstech

Jan 5, 2004, 7:58 PM
Ok. Thanks
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mmdstech

Jan 5, 2004, 4:13 PM
GSM is a great technology. Look what EDGE is doing in select markets where AT&T has upgraded to it. GSM utilizes sim cards which are great when switching phones. GSM is deployed all across Europe as the mainstream technology. I personally like cdma better. Verizon has rolled out CDMA EV-DO is Seattle and one other market. This provides data speeds around 250-300k, compared with GSM EDGE at 100-130k. It is clear that within the next couple of years, wireless carriers will be competing with cable providers, CLEC and ILEC's to provide broadband access. Maybe your manager turns a cold shoulder to GSM because you sell cdma service. I love Radio Shack, it's one of those fun stores to shop at. Have a good day.
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