Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 21:10:08 -0600 From: "Michael C . Wu" <keichii@iteration.net> To: Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be> Cc: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Mobile phone coverage (was: VCD (was Re: cvs commit: src/sys/dev/ata atapi-cd.c)) Message-ID: <20010121211008.A45892@peorth.iteration.net> In-Reply-To: <v04220829b6914d70834a@[10.0.1.2]>; from brad.knowles@skynet.be on Mon, Jan 22, 2001 at 03:42:45AM %2B0100 References: <200101211447.f0LElEk04073@mobile.wemm.org> <KAECKEJJOLGHAFGGNIKMAELICAAA.res02jw5@gte.net> <20010121145018.A73989@citusc17.usc.edu> <20010121165422.A44505@peorth.iteration.net> <v04220821b691222656eb@[10.0.1.2]> <20010121181251.B44819@peorth.iteration.net> <v04220825b6912c57be5b@[10.0.1.2]> <20010121184810.A45428@peorth.iteration.net> <20010122123518.L3066@wantadilla.lemis.com> <v04220829b6914d70834a@[10.0.1.2]>
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On Mon, Jan 22, 2001 at 03:42:45AM +0100, Brad Knowles scribbled: | At 12:35 PM +1030 2001/1/22, Greg Lehey wrote: | | > That's not the issue here. BTW, for the USA you need a three-band | > phone. That is, incidentally, the only kind of phone which will work | > just about anywhere (I'm not sure about Israel and Korea). | | Uhh, I think you need more than that. Let's count: | | AMPS/NAMPS | US TDMA (1900Mhz? 900Mhz?) | US CDMA (1900Mhz? 900Mhz?) | US GSM (1900Mhz) US 1900 and 900 | European GSM (900Mhz/1800Mhz) Asian GSM 900/1800 Greg is right, you only need a tri-band phone to roam across all the world's GSM networks. However, usually the tri-band phones are ugly and big. Having a dual-band phone will work well enough for anyone. Simply because you have at least 900mhz running. | To which you will be able to add W-CDMA, with the advent of the | 3G networks. Of course, this doesn't begin to address the needs for | analog coverage outside the US -- this is just a list of the | different technologies and frequencies of which I am personally | acquainted. I'd love to see this list get expanded. Pfft, who cares about analog? 8) | > The real issue is competition. One large company would be able to get | > better coverage. | | Coverage is extremely expensive to build. It's much cheaper to | buy. And even then, you don't really try to dot the entire country | side with a tower in each and every square mile (maybe every 1/10th | of a square mile in cities), you just don't bother trying to put up | antennas in the less populated areas, and you live with the fact that | 98% coverage is good enough and the rest of the people can just piss | off. I remember calling my mother in Taiwan to say hello when hiking in Japan with my GSM phone from Taiwan. | >> Love love 3G+W-CDMA. | > | > And where do I get one? | | Damn good question. I wanna know, too. The only working 3G W-CDMA network is in Japan. It will be at least two years before other countries have that. Even then, the Asian countries will switch over long before Europe and America. You can find out more about W-CDMA and 3G phones in the Artech House Publishers' "Mobile Communications Series" of books. I have the entire collection. :) There are less regulation and much greater demand for the technology in Asia. In many Asian countries, (.jp, .tw, .hk, .sg), it averages to two or three cell phones for the entire population. And there are less regulations^Wbureaucracy about this kind of things. The fact that governments in Asian countries subsidize or even own the mobile networks helps a lot too. :P -- +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | keichii@peorth.iteration.net | keichii@bsdconspiracy.net | | http://peorth.iteration.net/~keichii | Yes, BSD is a conspiracy. | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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