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Cellular Phone Forum / Manufacturers / Motorola / February 2004Advantages of GSM vs. TDMA?
I believe we will be offered GSM in the coming months in may area. My question regards the "real" difference and which is better and why. TDMA is my current service and is just OK at my house. Will GSM(assuming the towers are close) provide better coverage or service? Or should I not waste my time and stay TDMA? Thanks.  SignatureMickey A >I believe we will be offered GSM in the coming months in may area. My >question regards the "real" difference and which is better and why. TDMA is >my current service and is just OK at my house. Will GSM(assuming the towers >are close) provide better coverage or service? Or should I not waste my time >and stay TDMA? Never ceases to amaze me why people call D-AMPS/IS-136 TDMA, GSM is also TDMA. Time Domain Multiple Access, and both systems utilize that technology. >Thanks. Generally GSM provides extended services (such as GPRS/Data) at much higher rates than D-AMPS/IS-136, and better voice quality. It is also designed for world wide roaming. IN terms of coverage, timing limits place absolute limits on GSM cell size (where as with TDMA you usually run out of link margins long before you run out of timing) The less obvious advantage of GSM is the SIM. the SIM is YOU. Whatever phone you put it in is 'your phone'. So if you don't like your phone, just buy another one (unlocked), from anybody, anywhere, drop you SIM in it, and that's that. So while can stay with D-AMPS/IS-136 AKA TDMA, Thanks for the explaination(and a good one at that)..I haven't bothered to keep up with the new technologies since it wasn't available but I am thinking of a new phone and thought I should include that in my decision. I like the SIM concept...That's worth its weight in gold. Thanks again. On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 02:52:39 GMT, "Mickey A" <cmalberto@nospam.hotmail.com> wrote: >I believe we will be offered GSM in the coming months in may area. My >question regards the "real" difference and which is better and why. TDMA is >my current service and is just OK at my house. Will GSM(assuming the towers >are close) provide better coverage or service? Or should I not waste my time >and stay TDMA? Never ceases to amaze me why people call D-AMPS/IS-136 TDMA, GSM is also TDMA. Time Domain Multiple Access, and both systems utilize that technology. >Thanks. Generally GSM provides extended services (such as GPRS/Data) at much higher rates than D-AMPS/IS-136, and better voice quality. It is also designed for world wide roaming. IN terms of coverage, timing limits place absolute limits on GSM cell size (where as with TDMA you usually run out of link margins long before you run out of timing) The less obvious advantage of GSM is the SIM. the SIM is YOU. Whatever phone you put it in is 'your phone'. So if you don't like your phone, just buy another one (unlocked), from anybody, anywhere, drop you SIM in it, and that's that. So while can stay with D-AMPS/IS-136 AKA TDMA, > Thanks for the explaination(and a good one at that)..I haven't > bothered to keep up with the new technologies since it wasn't [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Thanks again. Not really. Someone can steel your phone and just replace the sim card from their phone to yours. Though they can track who's sim is in your stolen phone. *shrugs* Ryan > > Thanks for the explaination(and a good one at that)..I haven't > > bothered to keep up with the new technologies since it wasn't [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > their phone to yours. Though they can track who's sim is in your stolen > phone. *shrugs* In the UK the networks operate a common database of handset IMEI (serial) numbers, if your phone is stolen or lost once it is reported it can be barred across all networks, irrespective of what SIM card is in it. It's not always easy to get them to do this, particularly if you're using a SIM that was not the original one supplied with the phone, but it *is* possible. Ivor >> Thanks for the explaination(and a good one at that)..I haven't >> bothered to keep up with the new technologies since it wasn't [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] >their phone to yours. Though they can track who's sim is in your stolen >phone. *shrugs* If you don't have any security options used on your phone yes. If you have the phone security and PIN security active on your phone and you change the security code from the default no one can use your phone unless they have access to getting the phone reflashed. Most general purpose thugs wouldn't have a clue about that sort of thing. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - remove NONO from .NONOcom to reply Time DIVISION Multiple Access .. i believe .. but minor point .. Is the D-AMPS the same old AMPS system used in Australia about 5 years ago or something? Or totally different? > >I believe we will be offered GSM in the coming months in may area. My > >question regards the "real" difference and which is better and why. TDMA is [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > > So while can stay with D-AMPS/IS-136 AKA TDMA, >Time DIVISION Multiple Access .. i believe .. but minor point .. > >Is the D-AMPS the same old AMPS system used in Australia about 5 years ago >or something? Or totally different? The original D-AMPS is digital, but used analog signaling, which allowed it to coexist on a channel by channel basis with AMPS. It used the same channel assigments and control protocols, so could readily share infrastructure. You just got 3x the calls into a single channel! However the desire to move away from analog signaling lead to IS-136, which is D-AMPS with digital signaling, which cannot coexist with AMPS. I am not aware of D-AMPS use in Australia, but NZ-Telcom was a major user of the IS-136 variant. >> >I believe we will be offered GSM in the coming months in may area. My >> >question regards the "real" difference and which is better and why. TDMA [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] >> >> So while can stay with D-AMPS/IS-136 AKA TDMA, > I believe we will be offered GSM in the coming months in may area. My > question regards the "real" difference and which is better and why. TDMA is > my current service and is just OK at my house. Will GSM(assuming the towers > are close) provide better coverage or service? Or should I not waste my time > and stay TDMA? Better coverage is not really dependant on whether the system is TDMA or GSM, but more on how well the network has been built. You can have two networks using the same standard where one will work better in a location than the other. As for whether to use TDMA or GSM, it really depends what features you want. GSM phones contain a removable chip, which identifies you. With GSM you can also roam to more places around the world, or you could use your phone overseas with a local prepaid SIM (as long as your phone is unlocked). You should also look at what features are on the models of phones. Phones now have a lot of features other than the standard "make and receive calls". SignatureMatthew Smith (to reply via email remove xxx) |
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