Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 01:14:22 +0100 From: Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> Cc: "Michael C . Wu" <keichii@peorth.iteration.net>, Kris Kennaway <kris@FreeBSD.ORG>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: GSM vs. CDMA (was: VCD (was Re: cvs commit: src/sys/dev/ata atapi-cd.c)) Message-ID: <v04220824b69129ce24ec@[10.0.1.2]> In-Reply-To: <20010122103136.L93049@wantadilla.lemis.com> 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]> <20010122103136.L93049@wantadilla.lemis.com>
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At 10:31 AM +1030 2001/1/22, Greg Lehey wrote: > Don't forget that they have recently started introducing GSM into the > USA. I've found that it works better than the CDMA service. This has > nothing to do with the relative merits of the technology, but with the > fact that the service providers learnt that their cell placement was > too sparse for the old analogue/*DMA network, and they placed them > closer for GSM. As have pointed out yourself, quality of service with GSM in the US (in those very, very few places that have GSM service) has little to do with any supposed superior features of the technology, and more to do with more intelligent spacing of the towers and presumably other implementation lessons that have been learned, etc.... > I'm not sure to what extent it works in the USA. Roaming in the US has always worked just fine for me, even when I was roaming in an area that was supposedly covered by my carrier. Not once have I ever had a problem with being able to roam in an area (so long as there was any coverage available at all). Yes, it might have been expensive, but expensive is preferable to no connectivity at all. The key factor governing accessibility and coverage in the US is that virtually all digital phones sold are dual-mode digital/analog, or tri-mode GSM/digital (CDMA or TDMA)/analog, and therefore you can almost always get coverage even if the coverage isn't ideal (or may require roaming). That's simply not possible over here in Europe. > Not a problem. You store each of them on a SIMM. When I go to other > countries, I often borrow a local SIMM to save on costs. Just try > that with CDMA. SIMs are a major pain-in-the-ass. Do you know how easy it is to lose those tiny little things? I'd much prefer to have the multiple NAM capability in the phone itself, and not have SIMs at all. The one and only thing SIMs have going for them is they make it easier to take your account information with you if you want/need to switch phones, but having multiple NAMs in a phone that implemented all the proper carrier technologies would pretty much eliminate the need to do that. If you were to ever want to upgrade the phone, you should be able to have the necessary account information transferred from one phone directly to the other. -- These are my opinions -- not to be taken as official Skynet policy ====================================================================== Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles@skynet.be> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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