CDMA Wireless Network (aka mobile jetstream)

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darrylb

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#259 5-Jun-2003 21:30

Anyone got any idea when any phones supporting mobile jetstream (CDMA internet access) and Bluetooth will be available?

I would love to go GSM/GPRS, but my company pays for the phone, so I am stuck with CDMA.

Cheers

Recovering technology geek, business owner, Christian, generally friendly.

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#412 5-Jun-2003 21:39

The only CDMA Bluetooth available is the Sony Ericsson T608, but I'm not sure when or if it'll be available in New Zealand...

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alasta

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#416 6-Jun-2003 20:10

There is a snap on adaptor available to add Bluetooth functionality to Sony Ericsson phones. Unfortunately, at ~$400, the price is prohibitive.

halah

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#423 9-Jun-2003 09:30

Why would anyone choose GSM/GPRS over CDMA ?

given that GSM coverage in NZ, poor, and handover between services is shaky (often losing calls between base stations).

GPRS, a bolt on for data on the GSM network is again, patchy, slow big latency people.

CDMA.... Good coverage, great voice quality.....fast data on demand..... and is a dream when deployin IP applications, (unlike another network standard which is not natively conversent with IP).

I would have to admit, Vodaphone do have the feature rich handset side of the market cornered, i believe that there is limited options available from the Telecom camp, The ericsson phone has a modular add-on that provides bluetooth (Kind of ugly and cumbersome)

darrylb

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#424 9-Jun-2003 09:46

I was speaking to an architect the other day from Telecom and he said that Telecom were two years away from having the wireless technology that Vodaphone has.

By that he was specifically meaning the ability to Bluetooth to a phone in your pocket and surf the net, controlling the phone with the PPC.

I am not sure he was entirely right, because I understand that the major limitation on the CDMA network at the moment is just the handsets. Having BT and Mobile Jetstream in a CDMA handset would be a breakthrough that may allow this to happen.

Vodafone is a great marketing company, and Telecom is simply a large lumbering giant that is too disparate internally to be able to compete. Hence Vodafones new market leadership....

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freitasm

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#425 9-Jun-2003 16:11

Interesting, but Bluetooth on a handset has nothing to do with the network in use. Bluetooth is independent of CDMA or GPRS. Perhaps he wasn't comparing CDMA with GPRS, but the availability of Bluetooth enabled mobile phones on CDMA versus GPRS. Is that what you mean?

What happens is that there are more Bluetooth enabled devices because Bluetooth is being pushed by European companies, and CDMA has no presence in Europe. Now Bluetooth is showing up in the CDMA camp, with the new Sony Ericsson mobile phone.

I don't understand this comment from a Telecom Architect. And I'm just coming back from a full day meeting with Telecom and talked to some of their mobile guys.

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JaBZ

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#426 10-Jun-2003 00:24

Errr... that architect doesn't know what he talking about, 2 years get serious!!

darrylb
"Having BT and Mobile Jetstream in a CDMA handset would be a breakthrough"
Well this is already been done, i.e. Ericsson T60c with Ericsson Bluetooth module! Yes it's a pain attaching the module etc..etc.. but it works....with a Bluetooth PPC even.

Those T60c's were supposdley to come out with smartback acessories, i.e. integrated bluetooth module in the battery cover. Who knows whatever happened the them!!!

Anyway the SonyEricsson T608 is the killer phone, and "would" be the breakthrough for Telecom...alas it's never meant to be, since rumor is that SonyEricsson is pulling out from the CDMA market except for in Japan and USA.

cheers,
Jabz

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taniwha

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#889 6-Aug-2003 10:31

The impression i've got is that vodafone is the huge lumbering company with a branch in NZ just sits back and let the money roll in. Vodafone only advantage is they use GSM, and some dim-wit at telecom decided to follow from damps into cdma.

what a differenence if only telecom had the courage to switch to GSM instead and create some real competition.

telecom is now stuck in CDMA, and now have to hope that the american market suddenly becomes interested in cool phones - which they will not.
NZers love new technology, and you can only find that in the rapidly advancing GSM market (by advance i mean features and abilities).
CDMA is lagging because it's driven by the US phone market, and they just don't seem to have the same fire for techie gadgets.

Telecom's customer service is so much better than vodafones.
to keep my vodafone connected i had to jump through hoops like paying my bill before it arrived because my credit limit was less than my monthly access fee, when i gave up and went prepay GSM, they made me buy a new sim, change numbers, and didn't mention i'd lose features like call divert... they couldn't even let me choose my new prepay number.

and vfone they have so many GPRS outages in wellington. (something like 2-3 a week). which the 777 helpline tells me is overload due to running SMS competitions. i dunno how much sense that makes

i just got sick of all the vodafone's strange rules they make their customers adhere to, and their lack of service, when telecom's service is so non-fuss.. I only really wanted data, and telecom's rate is 80% cheaper, so i switched to tcom.

tcom allows moving from prepay to monthly account whenver i want without having to buy new sim or change number. I can now pay the monthly bill on pay day, and the *123 helpline people are friendly,helpful and know their stuff. Vfon'e 777 help line have to wait for their computer to find the answers to my questions...

so, that's my 2c on the difference between tcom and vfone.
tcom is great service on slack technoloy
and vfone is crazy service and outages on great technology.

jetboy

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#893 6-Aug-2003 13:05

Tanihwa - Sad to hear you had some shocking experiences with Vodafone, a real pity in fact. I'm taking your comments on board to pass on the Vodafone team.

darrylb

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#899 6-Aug-2003 13:34

My experience with Vodafone vs Telecom is the complete opposite. Vodafones customer service have been outstanding. Telecom have never asked me if I am/was happy with the service I receive, I used to receive regular calls from Vodafone (~6 monthly) regarding my plan and whether I was happy etc.

Switching phones on telecom is a nightmare. On GSM its a breeze. The features of the phones are not comparible, and with SonyEricsson pulling out of the market, I dont expect things to improve for telecom.

The only hope for the CDMA market is from Korea where I understand CDMA is the dominant network and they do like new technology. However, not all korean phones are intelligible to english people.

I'd be on Vodafone right now if my employer wasn't paying the bill. My wife is on Vodafone and will stay there.

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taniwha

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#903 6-Aug-2003 16:44

i agree that switching phones on vfone is much much easier than on tcom, but that would be something that GSM technology provides, not vodafone.

but that will change in about a month soon when tcom bring in RUIM cards.

if only i could use bluetooth too *sigh* - might be a couple years away.

freitasm

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#904 6-Aug-2003 17:14

taniwha, this is news for me... RUIM on Telecom? I know about the technology, and in my daytime work I have some projects with them and didn't hear anything... Care to enlighten us?

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JaBZ

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#906 6-Aug-2003 19:28

Tanihwa
"Vodafone only advantage is they use GSM, and some dim-wit at telecom decided to follow from damps into CDMA.

what a difference if only telecom had the courage to switch to GSM instead and create some real competition.

telecom is now stuck in CDMA, "

Telecom made the right choice. A lot of people don't understand for GSM to go 3G, the evolution path for GSM ends up
on a CDMA technology too. Vodafone has to jump to two completely different networks in order to implement CDMA, EDGE and UMTS

3G networks (UMTS, CDMA-2000, CDMA-1XEV etc) are all CDMA networks, even UMTS is another variation on CDMA called W-CDMA.
CDMA wins in the end - no matter where you start from, All roads lead to CDMA.
I wont even talk about data, speed, cost, coverage, efficiency, CDMA wins hands down.

Phones are coming out, slowly. This is a relatively new (old) technology, is will take a while for CDMA , GSM equivalent phones to come out.
I have heard about Telecom releasing Removable-User Identity Module (RUIM) but not anything recently. Although recent phones have the slots.

My opinions and ideas expressed in posts are solely my own and do not reflect the views of my employer in any way..

freitasm

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#927 7-Aug-2003 09:01

JaBZ, I've seen this post on PocketPCThoughts (original author of this post was rbrome) while discussing GSM x CDMA:

"It's true, but you have to be careful about the terminology. When you just say "CDMA", you could mean one of two things...

A. First, there's the specific "CDMA" technology that Sprint PCS, Telus, and Verizon have deployed. The technical terms for this technology are IS-95 and cdma2000 1xRTT. "CDMA" is just the common name for these.

B. Then there's "CDMA" as in "Code Division Multiple Access", which encompasses a broad range of digital wireless technologies that encode data in the radio waves a certain way.

...and CDMA (A) is based on CDMA (B) technology. ("A" and "B" aren't technically meaningful - I chose them arbitrarily just for this explanation.)

For a quick analogy: you know how Microsoft's SPOT works over FM radio? Compared to that scenario, CDMA (A) is like the SPOT protocol, while CDMA (B) is like FM...

So then there's the "3G" technology that everyone has been talking about in Europe and Asia. This is a technology called WCDMA (also called UMTS) which is also based on CDMA (B), but other than that, has very little in common with CDMA (A).

WCDMA/UMTS has SIM cards and all the other cool features of GSM, so to the end user, it will work more like GSM, and not CDMA (A).

So is the world moving to CDMA? Yes, but CDMA (B), not CDMA (A)."

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skyplonk

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#931 7-Aug-2003 12:19

People in NZ only thing GSM is the way to go because of Vodafone great print and TV ads.
It is a all about marketing. If telecom had the marketing that Vodafone had everyone would love telecom.

Everybody says that GSM is a better standard, and yes in the respect of global roaming nothing comes close. yet.

But consumer gimmicks like MMS (PXT) make people then that the technology behind the networks is light yeas ahead. The truth is GPRS is a proprietary bolt on for GSM and is not even a full IP network.

CDMA networks have the option for MMS, and EMS etc...But is the demand really there? I have used PXT phones and it has no real commercial use yet. Apart from making Vodafone $.50 a pic. I would rather get a descent digital camera, take a photo put the SD/MMC/Memory stick card into the device like the P800, Kyocera 7135 etc. and send a good photo.

I have used both telecom and Vodafone and where I live Telecom has by far the best reception. The quality of the call's on my new Nokia 3585 phone is 10 time better than my old T68 and 3315, background noise reduction is great, and I almost never get a dropped call, even in fringe coverage areas, due to CDMA's soft handoff’s.

This can be argued back and forth all day, and really both networks have pro's and cons, and it depends on what you want to do with your phone, and where you want to do it. CDMA is now for me.

Cheers

alasta

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#938 8-Aug-2003 00:25

I have been having problems with dropouts on GSM in certain areas where I frequently use my phone. I recently tried out a CDMA phone and found it 100% reliable.

Unfortunately, switching to Telecom permanently is not an option because
a.) Bluetooth is (at this stage) the only way that I can interface my phone with my Macintosh, and none of Telecom's phones have this feature.
b.) Changing my phone number would wreak havoc. Roll on number portability!

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