FC: Another take on CDMA vs. GSM, from Robert Clark

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

*******

> Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 15:21:03 +0800
> From: robert clark <rclark () telecomasia net>
> Organization: wireless asia
> To: declan () well com
> Subject: Re: FC: More on Europe, US technology boom, and wireless standards
>
> Declan
> it's disappointing to read this pretty shallow analysis. the cdma-gsm argument
> has become as wearisome as the old mac vs ibm brouhaha and just as 
> pointless. a
> few comments:
>
> * CDMA doesn't have 50m customers, it is closer to 40m, most of these in 
> Korea,
> Japan and the US.
>
> * It's true that GSM proponents have continually trashed CDMA, but that is
> normal if unfortunate for any startup against billion dollar enterprises. what
> is not normal is the degree of US political leverage Qualcomm has behind 
> it. the
> start of CDMA in Taiwan and  Australia (and probably Japan) has been as a 
> direct
> result of high level US lobbying. The standout case was China, where Beijing
> clearly linked the entry of CDMA into the country to its US WTO deal.
>
> * both the CDMA and the GSM versions of next generation technology have
> substantial backing from existing operators and vendors, so it's a little 
> early
> to be talking about faces blowing up. if anything GSM has the edge because it
> has a current customer base of around 250m and is well established in 
> Europe and
> Asia, in particular India and China.
>
> * The success of GSM is something of a fluke: the US industry in the early 90s
> was in some disarray, the japanese were unable to persuade anyone to take 
> their
> PDC technology.  Just for once, the European way worked.
>
> * It's laughable that anyone would argue that GSM markets are intrinsically
> 'behind" CDMA markets. First, GSM markets such as Finland, HongKong and Japan
> are well advanced  in new services - mobile banking, ticket booking, and other
> info  services have been a fact of life for 12 months and more. US cellcos 
> come
> out to Asia to see how it is done.  Second, the high bandwidth that is 
> about to
> come to CDMA is about to come to GSM in a similar timeframe.
>
> When it gets down to the technology, there's not much between the two. most
> experts agree CDMA is much better on the radio side - bigger capacity, less
> interference. GSM's strength is its core network.  GSM has the SIM card, which
> provides more functionality and is convenient (eg, change your phone, but keep
> your phone numbers and settings). Above all, you can take a GSM phone to
> virtually anywhere in the world and keep talking.  CDMA is still at the 
> crawling
> stage when it comes to roaming.
>
> Let the market go figure which is better.
>
>
>
>
> Robert Clark
> Editor
> Wireless Asia
> Hong Kong



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