Technology Comparison Table

This table compares the current cellular technologies in terms of voice quality, coverage (urban, suburban, & rural), in-building penetration, data services, handset selection, battery life, and system capacity) 

Technology & Spectrum

AMPS GSM 850 GSM 1900 CDMA 800 CDMA 1900 TDMA 800 iDEN

National Carriers
(AMPS varies by area)

AT&T, Cingular, Verizon AT&T, Cingular AT&T, Cingular, T-Mobile Verizon1 Sprint AT&T1, Cingular1 Nextel
Voice Quality Good

Good

Good

Good

Good

Fair

Good

Urban Coverage

Excellent

Good

Good

Excellent

Good

Excellent

Good

Suburban Coverage

Excellent

Good

Fair

Excellent

Fair

Excellent

Good

Rural Coverage

Excellent

Fair

Poor

Good

Poor

Excellent

Fair

In-Building Penetration

Excellent

Excellent

Fair

Excellent

Fair

Excellent

Excellent

Data Services

Poor

Excellent

Excellent

Excellent

Excellent

Poor

Fair

Handset Selection

Poor

Excellent

Excellent

Fair

Good

Poor

Poor

Battery Life

Poor

Excellent

Excellent

Good

Good

Fair

Good

International Roaming

Poor

Excellent2
(GSM 900)

Fair2
(GSM 1800)

Limited

Limited

Limited

Poor

System Capacity

Poor

Good

Good

Excellent

Excellent

Fair

Excellent

1. In some areas TDMA and CDMA coverage by these carriers is at 1900 Mhz
2. This refers to the quality of international roaming at the specified frequency. All of the 1900 Mhz GSM carriers offer international roaming at both 900 Mhz and 1800 Mhz. 1800 Mhz GSM suffers from the same problems as 1900 Mhz GSM.

Comments

For use inside the U.S., CDMA 800 + AMPS is clearly the best choice. The biggest downside is that the handset selection is not as good as what's available with GSM (and the handsets cost more), but their still is a sufficient selection for most users. For international use, a CDMA user would have to have a tri-band unlocked GSM handset and buy prepaid SIM cards; they would not be able to roam with their own number. Many GSM users also choose to buy prepaid SIM cards when traveling because it is much less expensive than roaming. It's a little bit of a hassle, but it saves a lot of money. You simply change your voice mail greeting to give your SIM card phone number to callers, or forward your calls.

GSM 850 Mhz is going to solve many of the problems of GSM 1900 Mhz, once it is widely deployed.

Be aware of carriers' technology not only in your home area, but in areas to which you may often visit.

Smaller TDMA carriers are going either to GSM or CDMA. If the carrier is an affiliate of AT&T then they are almost certain to go GSM. But many independent TDMA carriers have decided to move to CDMA, including U.S. Cellular and Cellular South (see article).

Be aware that just because a compatible technology network exists in a given area it does not mean that your carrier has a roaming agreement with it. For example I received an e-mail from someone in Mendocino County stating that even though there is now GSM coverage from Edge Wireless, it can only be used by AT&T GSM customers, not by T-Mobile or Cingular customers, even with roaming fees.

Again, Nextel needs to be judged in terms of their target market which is not people who require ubiquitous coverage or high speed data.

 


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