Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: Crossing the Lines
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 06:23:11 -0500
Begin forwarded message: From: John Levine <johnl () iecc com> Date: February 9, 2008 11:03:08 PM EST To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] Re: Crossing the Lines
// They wanted to follow U.S. troops into Iraq with Qualcomm's // patented cellular technology, called CDMA, a system no nation // in the Middle East had yet been willing to adopt. Wait, I thought, that's not right.
Well, OK, it's only 95% right. Let's look at Iraq's neighbors, taking our data from the usually reliable gsmworld.com and cdg.org. Iran has five GSM networks, no CDMA. Syria has three GSM networks, no CDMA. Saudia Arabia has four active GSM networks, and two planned. They have CDMA WLL (wireless local loop), but no CDMA mobiles. Jordan has three GSM networks, no CDMA. Turkey has three GSM networks, no CDMA. Israel, which has no border with Iraq, has four active GSM networks, one planned, and 2 1/2 CDMA networks (the 1/2 is only in Tel Aviv.) Pelphone, which runs the CDMA networks, will be running the planned 3G GSM network, which gives you a hint which way the wind is blowing. I don't purport to speak for the Iraqi man in the street, but I'm pretty sure that if I asked him whether he'd rather have a phone that works in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Israel, as well as all of Europe and North Africa, or a phone that only works in Israel, I can guess what the answer would be. There's nothing wrong with CDMA. It's arguably better than 2G GSM which is TDMA. New versions of GSM use CDMA technology, although they're not compatible with CDMA networks. But GSM has done a superb job of rolling out compatible interoperable systems all over the world, which CDMA has not. Even Verizon, which runs the largest CDMA network, has stated that their future direction will be GSM compatible. So despite the smoke and mirrors, if the goal was to build a mobile system that would be the most useful to Iraqi phone users, rather than a system to benefit the constituents of a representative from San Diego, the answer was and still should be GSM. Regards,John Levine, johnl () iecc com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, ex- Mayor
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Current thread:
- Crossing the Lines David Farber (Feb 08)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Crossing the Lines David Farber (Feb 09)
- Re: Crossing the Lines David Farber (Feb 10)