CDMA & GSM

For those of you who hae no idea of what CDMA and GSM are, I don't blame you; I'll bet most people are simply confused by all the technical jargon. But here's the quick rundown, plus some links to places where you can read more about the two technologies...and yes I've said this before but anyway...

CDMA: Code Division Multiple Access. Used by Verizon, Sprint, Alltel and a lot of little rural carriers, as well as "unlimited carriers" like MetroPCS and CricKet. CDMA has better coverage in the US and better cell site capacity, but isn't used worldwide like GSM is and is harder to use across multiple carriers...

GSM: Global System for Mobile, based on TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access). Used by Cingular\AT&T, T-Mobile and a lower number of minor carriers. This technologies makes use of SIM cards so it's easier to change your service or phone (just pop out the card and pop it into another phone, with some reservations). And it's a worldwide standard in that it is used in many more countries than CDMA...so you can use GSM "world phones" (the Razr is one) internationally. But network capacity isn't as large as CDMA, and a whole new technology (WCDMA) is required to get high-speed data (on CDMA it's just another upgrade).

Personally, I'm a CDMA guy, but GSM is nice since you can just buy one phone that will work with all the GSM providers in the world...but anyway for more information take a look at these sites:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-11282_7-6437119-1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_mobile_phone_standards

And if you're wondering what "cell breathing" is (not as much of a problem on CDMA now as it was several years ago, since 99% of CDMA networks are upgraded to a better technology...)

http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid40_gci820970,00.html

If you have questions or comments, comment and I'll see what I can do...