GSM - Too Many Standards?

[Kris Kumar]

Recently I was reading about the launch of NEC N900iG, (http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/readnews.php?id=581) the first device to offer FOMA and UMTS. If you are wondering what FOMA and UMTS is? You are not alone. :-) Luckily I knew what UMTS meant, but FOMA? I had no idea what it was. And thanks to Google, I learnt that FOMA is a Japanese NTT DoCoMo 3G standard. FOMA means Freedom Of Mobile multimedia Access, it is a marketing name for the W-CDMA based NTT DoCoMo's 3G network. It also happens to be the world's first 3G network.

Aha! FOMA and UMTS are two 3G GSM network types and the NEC device supports both of them. This got me thinking. The GSM world is full of standards, acronyms and confusing numbers: 3G, UMTS, FOMA, EDGE, GPRS, HSCSD, W-CDMA, 850Mhz, 900Mhz, 1800Mhz, 1900Mhz.

One of the biggest advantages of the GSM phones is that it enables worldwide roaming. But the GSM world is fragmented into various frequencies. 900Mhz and 1800Mhz in Europe and Asia. Till recently North America was primarily using only the 1900Mhz. Now thanks to AT&T and Cingular we have 850Mhz. The thing that makes life complicated or annoying for the Smartphone user is that after buying an expensive GSM Smartphone, we have to deal with the segmented GSM world. Only the Motorola MPx220 has Quad band and this phone is yet to hit the market. There aren't many Quad band regular phones either. Manufacturers prefer to sell European version (900/1800/1900) and US version (850/1800/1900) of the same model. This totally defeats the GSM advantage.
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The mess doesn't end with the frequencies. Now with the Smartphones the demand for high speed data access is rising. GSM carriers have adopted different approaches to enable high speed internet or 3G services. NTT DoCoMo which was the first carrier in the world to launch 3G service is using FOMA. The carriers in Europe are using UMTS. In US the GSM carriers (T-Mobile and AT&amp;T) chose to adopt EDGE as a stop-gap (cost effective) arrangement. And will eventually move on to UMTS. As you might have already guessed; EDGE, UMTS and FOMA are not compatible with each other. The mobile device must individually support each one of these standards (like the NEC N900iG). Only then will I be able to claim global roaming because the carriers around the world are not using the same standard.

So this brings up the question. Will the lack of uniformity or the existence of too many standards, impede the GSM growth in the future? Will the lack of devices that support all the above described frequencies and standards annoy you to the point that you decide to dump GSM for good? What are your thoughts and concerns? Why can't the phone say "3G Enabled", instead of GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/FOMA? Is CDMA a better alternative?

Here is a mini GSM acronym guide. :-)
EDGE: Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution
GPRS: General Packet Radio Service
HSCSD:High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data
FOMA: Freedom Of Mobile multimedia Access
UMTS: Universal Mobile Telephone System
W-CDMA: Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access

And in case you want to know how these acronyms are related (or unrelated) to each other:
GPRS replaced HSCSD. Depending on the carrier GPRS will be replaced by EDGE, UMTS or FOMA. EDGE is a short term replacement till the carriers can get to UMTS or FOMA. UMTS and FOMA are variants of W-CDMA.

[brntcrsp]

Thank you Kris - I've been reading these acronyms for so long I just never took the time to really understand their relation to each other. From previous readings I understand that the US went 850/1900 because the military already staked a claim on the 900/1800 bands.

Would you be able to give CDMA (or whatever Sprint and Verizon use is called) the same treatment, and provide a breakdown of how all the acronyms fit together?

All I get is the alphabet soup of CDMA, EV-DO, etc...

Thanks.

[rbrome]

It's really not quite that bad.

First, forget FOMA - that's one carrier (DoCoMo) in one country (Japan), plus it is very close to the WCDMA/UMTS standard, and they are currently upgrading it to meet the standard completely, except for the frequency band (nothing they can do about that).

Second, WCDMA and UMTS are essentially interchangeable terms for the same thing. At least that's how they are used (outside of Japan, of course).

Next, all WCDMA/UMTS phones outside of Japan also include GSM (including GPRS). It's technically not the same thing as UMTS being "backward-compatible" with GSM/GPRS, but in practice it can be thought of that way.

Also, EDGE is not a whole new standard - it's merely a tweaked version of GSM/GPRS, which is why it's also called EGPRS. It's 100% backward-compatible with GSM/GPRS. So any EDGE phone also supports GSM and GPRS, and many WCDMA/UMTS phones will also support GSM, GPRS, and EDGE down the road.

HSCSD is a European thing. And it's a lot like EDGE in that it's just a tweak to GSM that offers higher data rates. It's not a whole new, incompatible standard - it's 100% backward-compatible with standard GSM data (CSD).

The frequency bands are a bitch, but there's really nothing that can be done about that. The goverments decide which bands to make available for what, and the industry has to work within that. There are serious international efforts to coordinate bands worldwide - which is why wi-fi and Bluetooth can use the same band worldwide, and why we only have four major GSM bands instead of hundreds - but complete spectrum harmony worldwide just isn't possible in our lifetimes.

[Arne Hess]

Aha! FOMA and UMTS are two 3G GSM network types
FOMA is the brand name for NTT DoCoMo's 3G network which is based on the W-CDMA which is also used for (UMTS) 3G in Europe.

[Kris Kumar]

Thanks Guys, for shedding extra light on some key points. I wrote this thread so that the GSM mumbo-jumbo could be demystified. I can already see that it is happening (even though the post has been up for only an hour). :-)

I have tried my level best to keep the post accurate. But digging up the information was tough. That is why I chose to raise the concerns rather than trying to explain the terms in depth. So please do correct my post or provide details and guide us.

[Kris Kumar]

And in case you want to know how these acronyms are related (or unrelated) to each other:
GPRS replaced HSCSD. Depending on the carrier GPRS will be replaced by EDGE, UMTS or FOMA. EDGE is a short term replacement till the carriers can get to UMTS or FOMA. UMTS and FOMA are variants of W-CDMA.

So to build up on the above summary and also the excellent comments by rbrome and Arne. Here is another summary..

- FOMA is a brand name for W-CDMA implementation.
- UMTS is European & rest of the world implementation of W-CDMA.
- FOMA is slighly different from UMTS. I can see why that happened. Because the Japanese were the first to implement W-CDMA.
- NTT is making FOMA compatible with UMTS.

- EDGE is backward compatible with GPRS
- UMTS is backward compatible with GPRS

- HSCSD data rates - does it compare to EDGE or GPRS?

[Arne Hess]

- HSCSD data rates - does it compare to EDGE or GPRS?
Based on packet switched data (like GPRS or EDGE, HSCSD is a circuit switched connection) with comparable speed to GPRS - not EDGE.

[ricksfiona]

Hopefully people will wake-up and figure out that AT&T has one of the worst cell service ratings in the country. Cingular shares that distinction. I can see why AT&T and Cingular want to create a whole new frequency for themselves... If everyone is using the same frequency, then the service becomes a commodity and they have to compete by giving the best bang for the buck. And we know where these providers stand.

T-Mobile rocks and as long as they are around, will stick with them. It's only in the most desolate areas where AT&T coverage is better than T-Mobiles, bu this will change eventually.

Since I rarely go outside major metropolitan areas, I don't need the extra 3% - 5% coverage that AT&T provides in the United States. I'll take that 5% for WORLDWIDE coverage. :wink:

[Kris Kumar]

Would you be able to give CDMA (or whatever Sprint and Verizon use is called) the same treatment, and provide a breakdown of how all the acronyms fit together?

All I get is the alphabet soup of CDMA, EV-DO, etc...


Good idea..I will put that request on my things to do list. :-) Or maybe one of our readers can enlighten us.