Siemens Says US Mobile Could Shift To GSM

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&amp;storyid=2005-12-15T195102Z_01_SCH528215_RTRUKOC_0_US-SIEMENS-NETWORKS.xml">http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&amp;storyid=2005-12-15T195102Z_01_SCH528215_RTRUKOC_0_US-SIEMENS-NETWORKS.xml</a><br /><br /><i>"Siemens believes North American telecoms operators could shift to the GSM mobile standard from the rival CDMA system, a senior company executive said in an interview published on Thursday. "Latin America is already moving from CDMA technologies to GSM," Christoph Catselitz, the head of Siemens AG's mobile networks business told Finnish business daily Taloussanomat. "I would not bet on North America continuing with CDMA."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2005/20051219-gsmvscdma.jpg" /><br /><br />Well, as much as I prefer GSM because my phone works in South America and Europe, I don't put a lot of credibility in this statement. Verizon is the number one carrier and has a massive EVDO rollout in the works, far ahead of anything Cingular or T-Mobile, the GSM carriers in the US, have. I personally don't care which technology is used, as long as it is just one. It is so frustrating to have to worry about GSM vs CDMA and different frequencies on GSM where you now have to have a quad-band GSM phone to be guaranteed of a connection. My JasJar has UMTS, but it is 2100MHz. My understanding is in the US, UMTS will be 1900MHz. You want to know why the cool devices are so expensive? They have to support and be tested with half a dozen frequencies! AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!! :frusty:<br /><br />Could be worse. We could see a new Windows Mobile device released that supports TDMA. :roll:

[wirelessbeachbum]

Wow a company that makes GSM network gear, says CDMA is dying. I'm not a very good gambler...but I think I would take him up on his bet about North America continuing with CDMA.

[Paragon]

I don't know how many sites I have seen this story on.....One guy who works for a GSM supplier makes a remark that CDMA, it's rival, is going bye bye, and the community is a flutter. ;) I tend to agree with much of what Ed said.

Dave

[latinware]

At least here in LatinAmerica CDMA it's gone for good, Telefonica it's changing to GSM in the areas where they acquire companies that had the CDMA infrastructure. The rest of mobile businessess in the area are GSM (850, 900, 1900Mhz). Probably what the guys at Siemens are saying could be truth if you analize whats going to happen in China, they acquire GSM 3G and so because the millions of units (mobiles) they will be putting out not only for their internal needs but for export, then GSM it's going to be a norm for the comunication world.

[whydidnt]

When you consider the millions if not billions that Verizon and Sprint have already invested in CDMA infrastructure, I think it is safe to say that the Siemens guy is full of hot air.

Not that most of us wouldn't love to see GSM standardized in the US so we could freely move our phones between networks, but I just can't see this happening within the foreseeable future.

[sapibobo]

What about GSM 1X? I saw one of the Moto models equipped with GSM GPRS and CDMA 2001X. GSM 1X provide us with dual system in one hand device, ex: Motorola A860.

And Ericsson Telefonaktiebolaget just develop base station controller for WCDMA (3G GSM) that can handle CDMA EVDO network system aswell. They just need 1 base station, one hardware platform for both system.

I think in the future the network system is no longer an issue.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Hey, come on in and join us. The GSM water is just fine. :mrgreen:

It would be great to be able to use the same phone standards all over the world. 8)

One standard = a bigger market.

[ctmagnus]

It would be great to be able to use the same phone standards all over the world. 8)

That's why I went with a GSM carrier, even though the predominant carrier here is CDMA and has somewhat better coverage.

My carrier has excellent coverage in most parts around here, but there's one largish area that has absolutely no GSM signal whatsoever. So I just try to avoid that spot. Conversely, I know of a restaurant that's way out in the tulees and that has an excellent GSM signal, yet no CDMA coverage.

[bspline]

At least here in LatinAmerica CDMA it's gone for good, Telefonica it's changing to GSM in the areas where they acquire companies that had the CDMA infrastructure. The rest of mobile businessess in the area are GSM (850, 900, 1900Mhz). Probably what the guys at Siemens are saying could be truth if you analize whats going to happen in China, they acquire GSM 3G and so because the millions of units (mobiles) they will be putting out not only for their internal needs but for export, then GSM it's going to be a norm for the comunication world.

Hmmm... In Brazil (That's *still* considered Latin America) the main carrier is CDMA. The other three main competitors are GSM, but VIVO (which is Telefonica's rebranding here) still has the best coverage. Unfortunately, as I think GSM is better.