Why are there no CDMA PHONES!

N

nvpv

New member
Ok..i'm at my wits end...
Why in teh hell is there like 10 Unlocked CDMA phones compared to the 100000000000000000000000000000000000 unlocked GSM Phones? I Need a new phone for alltel, and I cant find any thing COOL...i'm gettin mad.

Whats the deal? AND THEN, I take a look at maps for GSM and maps for CDMA on Google images and find that theres WAY more CDMA coverage in teh united states than GSM....WHAT THE HECK?

BV
 
Because that's because CDMA doesn't allow you to change phones as easily as GSM. GSM is way more popular than CDMA in rest of the world. That's why there are way more GSM phones than CDMA phones.
The reason why there are more CDMA coverage than GSM coverage in the US is probably because there are more CDMA carriers than GSM carriers in the US.
If you want cool phone, switch to GSM. If where you live doesn't have GSM coverage, then I guess you run out of luck.
 
I think you should've added a few of these to your post counterbond: lol

But part of the problem is that the US likes to be different. We still use the English system while the rest of the world including England has gone metric. When it comes to cell phone technology, GSM carriers are the standard in Europe and dominate the rest of the planet. Worldwide, there are far more GSM users than CDMA. So, who does Nokia and Sony make phones for, GSM only. Who gets all the cooler models because that's who cell phone manufacturers focus on? GSM

But here in the US, there are more CDMA users and more CDMA companies. Part of the advantage to CDMA is the carrier you're with, Alltel. Alltel provides a ton of rural coverage that nobody else bothers with. So we are in a bit of a quandry in the US, CDMA has far superior coverage and GSM has the cooler phones. Alltel also tends to focus on their systems where they have an 850 MHz cellular band license which provides a signal that gives better coverage than a PCS signal. With Alltel in your area, they would be very difficult to beat for coverage.

As for an unlocked phone, most CDMA carriers won't activate a phone branded by another carrier. Alltel doesn't lock any of their phones and it's fairly simple to get non-Alltel phones activated on Alltel, but then you will probably run into data problems and only voice and maybe texting will work. But be careful because some CDMA carriers such as Sprint do lock their phones.

The newest phones that Alltel has now are the Samsung U520 and the Motorola KRZR. The LG AX8600 is coming in March according to many others here on HoFo which has a very slick design.

If you're not satisfied with any of those, then I'm not sure what else could be done short of considering a coverage drop and moving over to GSM if they have a phone that suits your tastes better.
 
Sits back, relaxes, enjoys excellent GSM coverage, and a cool phone. And 3 backup phones just in case I feel like switching in a moments notice.
 
And a boring CDMA prepaid phone just in case.

GSM will gradually get better in the US. It's just going to take some time for the network to catch up. CDMA was an easier build because analog worked with it, and upgrading analog to CDMA was a fairly easy procedure.

If you want to play with GSM, get a prepaid T-Mobile account and have at it. It's not expensive. It's cheap enough that I have one and I'm only in the US every year or two.
 
Not entirely correct but it is a logical assertion.

The main problem with GSM in the US has nothing to do with converting analog to CDMA, they are two completely different technologies. Cingular still runs Analog on a number of their sites and they are a GSM carrier.

The main reason GSM isn't as well built out in the US is the licenses offered for cellular coverage. There are only two cellular band (850 MHz) licenses for any area in the US and in many places these 2 licenses are held by two CDMA providers and Alltel has done a fantastic job at snatching up a number of these. These licenses are so valuable because the land covered by a single cell site on a 850 Mhz signal is approximately 3-4x as large as that covered by a PCS site (1900 MHz). So, essentially, it is unprofitable to build in many areas with a PCS license. Therefore, building GSM out into many areas would be unprofitable for the carrier and the carrier may opt to give no coverage or limit it to only highways and interstates. In fact, although Alltel does not sale GSM service, they have a fairly large GSM network setup in some of their Western territories exclusively for roaming traffic.

The bottom line is unless more spectrum is opened up for commercial use by the US government, GSM will always play catch-up. It's just not profitable for them to build into rural areas where CDMA dominates and provides twice as good of coverage with half as many towers. This trend will probably continue here until the day that GSM and CDMA operators upgrade to a newer, compatible technology that is worth converting the networks or by way of a mega-merger and conversion of a CDMA carrier or two to GSM.
 
Maybe we're luckier here in Canada. The A-side provider on the 800/850 MHz band is Rogers, which is (as of April 2007) 100% GSM (analog and TDMA are being shut down then). The B-side providers are Telus, Bell, Aliant, SaskTel and MTS (plus some tiny regional ones) - Telus and Bell are national (and use 1900 MHz where they don't have native service, and roam on each other as well). This means that we have good highway coverage with GSM 850 in most parts of the country.

Actually, when Rogers first deployed GSM, it only deployed GSM 1900 and it wasn't bad. I used GSM 1900 for about a year and didn't have any significant problems with rural coverage. Indoor coverage was another matter, though. It was noticeably worse than the TDMA network. GSM 850 has fixed this of course.

It isn't completely out of the question to build a good GSM 1900 rural network. To do it well is a little more money, but to do it with acceptable service is definitely doable without great differences in expenditure. If GSM is going to become a popular technology in the US, it will have to be done at some point. (With some providers like Alltel putting up GSM radios even though they are CDMA providers, some help is on the way.)
 
You are much luckier when it comes to being on the world standard and basically getting any phone you want as an option. I have actually read how many markets in the US are CDMA cellular only vs. how many are GSM cellular only and the numbers are crazy. HoFo member XFF has thoroughly described it before. There are so many more markets where CDMA is cellular only. I'm just jealous though! I do prefer GSM handsets, but GSM just isn't near as well built out where I live and travel and I'm not ready to sacrifice coverage for my main phone so I keep that with CDMA.
That is very true. It will be interesting to see how it plays out over time and if network operators are more likely to go into areas where it is increasingly more likely they won't make a profit from customers that live in the area but it is an area that is a deadspot for their network that needs to one day be national. Also, if roaming revenue will be valuable enough for those who hold cellular licenses to devote a portion of that to GSM use. In the US, there is also much talk of 700 MHz band licenses going up for sale. But of course, Emergency Service are also hot after that band. More spectrum should be opened both to give GSM better national coverage and to give smaller carriers like Alltel and USCC the competitive opportunity to move into larger city markets they've been unable to acquire licenses for thus far which would help prevent the further consolidation of the industry which would be good for the consumer.
 
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