A Basic Comparison between GSM and CDMA 2000

GSM is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world. GSM as elaborated Global System for Mobile communications is largely dominate the share of telecommunication network worldwide. Its promoter, the GSM Association, estimates that 80% of the global mobile market uses the standard. GSM is used by over 3 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories. Its ubiquity makes international roaming very common between mobile phone operators, enabling subscribers to use their phones in many parts of the world. GSM differs from its predecessors in that both signaling and speech channels are digital, and thus is considered a second generation (2G) mobile phone system. This has also meant that data communication was easy to build into the system.

CDMA, Code Division Multiple Access, on the other hand, uses a special type of digital modulation called spread spectrum which spreads the voice data over a very wide channel in pseudorandom fashion. The receiver undoes the randomization to collect the bits together and produce the sound.

For comparison, imagine a cocktail party, where couples are talking to each other in a single room. The room represents the available bandwidth. In GSM, a speaker takes turns talking to a listener. The speaker talks for a short time and then stops to let another pair talk. There is never more than one speaker talking in the room, no one has to worry about two conversations mixing. In CDMA, any speaker can talk at any time; however each uses a different language. Each listener can only understand the language of their partner. As more and more couples talk, the background noise (representing the noise floor) gets louder, but because of the difference in languages, conversations do not mix.

Feature of GSM

• Technology: TDMA
• Generation: 2G
• Digital: Yes
• Year of First Use: 1991
• Market share : 72%
• Roaming: Worldwide
• Handset interoperability: SIM Card
• Operator locking: Unlockable
• Signal quality/coverage area: Good coverage indoors on 850/900 MHz.
• Battery life: Very Good due to simple protocol, ggod coverage.
  

Features of CDMA 2000

• Technology: CDMA
• Generation: 3G
• Digital: Yes
• Year of First Use: 200/2002
• Market share : 12%
• Roaming: Limited
• Handset interoperability: RUIM (not commonly implemented)
• Operator locking: ESN
• Signal quality/coverage area: Unlimited cell size, low transmitter.
• Battery life: Lower due to high demands of CDMA power control snd young chipsets.