Generally speaking, both networks have fairly concentrated coverage in major cities and along major highways. GSM carriers, however, have roaming contracts with other GSM carriers, allowing wider coverage of more rural areas, generally speaking, often without roaming charges to the customer.
CDMA networks may not cover rural areas as well, and though they may contract with GSM cells for roaming in more rural areas, the charge to the customer can be significantly higher. To work internationally, the phone has to be a quad-band phone, which means that it works with frequencies of , , , and MHz. Additionally, the phone does have to be unlocked and the user does have to be trying to use a network that exists in the country, which is sometimes more difficult to do with CDMA since fewer countries have CDMA networks.
If the phone is unlocked and there is a network present, though, then users can buy a UICC with minutes and a local number in the country in which they're traveling to avoid paying international rates. What is GSM? What is CDMA? In other words, CDMA is a handset-based standard, with a phone number linked to a particular device.
If you wanted to upgrade to another phone, you would have to get in touch with the network carrier, de-activate the old device and activate the new one. On the other hand, with GSM devices, the phone number is linked to the SIM card, so when switching devices, all you have to do is pop the SIM card into a new phone and you are good to go.
This is obviously without taking into consideration GSM devices being locked to network carriers, as seen in the US. However, when it comes to international roaming, GSM has the upper hand, with a lot more GSM networks around the world, along with roaming deals between these providers.
With a GSM phone, you also have the advantage of picking up a local SIM card wherever you are, assuming that you have an unlocked device. You may not get full access to data connectivity, depending on the device and network compatibility though.
Some phones come in both CDMA and GSM models so that you can use that type of phone on either network, depending on which model you choose. Each is a type of radio protocol used in mobile phones and each provider's mobile network is set up to work with either GSM, CDMA or both. GSM phones also operate on a specific frequency depending on the location of the provider. GSM phones that operate on one frequency can't be used on networks with different frequencies unless the phone is a tri-band GSM phone or a quad-band GSM phone, which works with a variety of frequencies.
While there's no indication that either type of network is inherently better than the other, each one offers different features that may help you decide which is best for you. If you're on one GSM network and want to switch to a different provider, just pop the SIM from the new provider into the phone and service will be at your fingertips.
Internationally, though, GSM phones are almost universally preferred, with the exception of South Korea.
0コメント