please for the sake of accuracy stop writing articles that say "CDMA vs GSM"

all 3G uses CDMA technology.. do some research. GSM Air interface technology died with EDGE.

Overseas uses CDMA technology.... everywhere..... there is no country in the world with 3G that does not use CDMA technology.

Why are there so many GSM phones out there as opposed to CDMA? requires lots of writing and history to answer this I will be brief but hit the high points. GSM was the best way to build a wireless network at a point in time. CDMA was invented and disrupted the cellular game and its players and certain hardware vendors trashed the technology and refused to believe it was better than GSM (think western Europe, where these same hardware makers convinced the governments to mandate GSM technology). At a point in time everyone realized CDMA was in fact way better than GSM for a network operator and In their efforts to keep their customers from leaving them for CDMA2000 and to avoid paying royalties to the inventor they created WCDMA and priced in such a way that it was better for operators to use WCDMA and comply with the so called GSM mandate. The result was for political and marketing reasons the GSM standards body and the hardware vendors and network operators hid the technology name WCDMA and made up new ones which are UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA/HSPA etc.... So the reason their are so many so called GSM phones is that countries with the highest cell phone penetration rates fell under the GSM standard mandate and those companies were successful at keeping CDMA2000 technology out. The fact is that any NEW so called GSM phone uses CDMA technology for the 3G data. There are way more CDMA phones than GSM phones and there are more 3GSM phones than CDMA2000 phones. A typical GSM phone with 3G has 2 technologies (GSM and WCDMA) and multiple radios 800/900 1800/1900 2100 ... and so any world 3G CDMA2000 phone has 3 technologies WCDMA/CDMA2000/GSM and multiple radios 800/900 1800/1900 2100. So all the phones with 3G are in fact CDMA phones it is just which version of CDMA. CDMA is by and far the best wireless phone technology (business decision wise). Until OFDMA was created 4G .... yet another long story.

What do you think is going to happen to CDMA networks? Nothing for a long time. Countries that do not have the gov mandate to a certain technology almost always use CDMA2000. GSM only technology phones will be gone around 2020 even though groups of governments and companies will continue to use GSM in their names as a standards body and product lines but as a technology GSM is dead. Technology path .... analog lost to TDMA lost to GSM lost to CDMA and CDMA will lose to OFDMA. It took carriers a long time to get rid of analog and TDMA so GSM still has some life and CDMA will be around for a long time. 4G will be the way to go as of now but someone could always come up with something better tomorrow and change everything.


I don't prefer 3G over CDMA....... CDMA 2000 and 3GSM WCDMA/HSDPA/HSPA/HSUPA are ALL 3G... Sprint and Verizon's EVDO networks are 3G. There are over 280 CDMA2000 operators and over 440 deployed CDMA200 networks worldwide and 98 more in process of being deployed as I write this. 3GSM (WCDMA) is larger.

GSM as a technology died with EDGE.... all 3G technology is CDMA, it is either CDMA2000 or WCDMA.... so when people say they prefer HSPA over CDMA that makes no sense to me..... HSPA is using RAN CDMA technology .

The GSM standard for 3G is 3GSM and it specifically points out the technology as WCDMA so please stop bashing CDMA when you proclaim your preference for GSM 3G.

Any sprint phone can be tracked like this (for years) and it can be pushed. Also Sprint connection cards can be tracked. Google latitude offers tracking. Why do iPhone users act like a feature is cool and awesome when an iphone can do it even though it has been available for years elsewhere?