Re: GSM vs CDMA Technology

Brent,

If you go back far enough in history, I think you will find that the U.S.
AMPS standard was the model that was used as the driver for the GSM standard
in Europe.  At the time each European country had its own wireless
technology "standard" rendering it impossible to use the same phone or even
think about roaming across system/country borders.  The European community
looked at the US model and saw the distinct advantage of having a single
standard defined and implemented.  IIRC., this was at about roughly the same
time as the ECC was getting off the ground.  It was later that Ericsson and
other GSM proponents really pushed to get the standard adopted in Asia
pacific (and unsuccessfully until most recently in the US and South America)

Interestingly enough, in the US where the original AMPS standard was born,
two completely different and competing digital standards were emerging (TDMA
and sometime later, CDMA) and there were even some different flavors within
vanilla TDMA (remember the incompatible Motorola Narrow band TDMA?)  The FCC
and the industry never really tried to pull these together and instead
allowed the market to determine the winner/loser.   The difference between
the incompatibility mess in Europe in the late 1980's and the US today is
due to the continuing evolution of the intelligent hand set which supports
multiple technologies, RF spectrum, etc.

Oh well, in any event, thanks for the clarification.  Yes, its always
interesting to look back at history and wonder what would have or could have
happened if ....

 Bob

"Brent P" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> The European digital cellular market developed earlier, and companies
> there are no more or less resistant to change than one's in the USA.
> Analog ruled the USA when europe went to GSM. One might as well take
> his example and roll it back a decade and then it's got the europeans
> as the leaders and the US as the laggards. If europe didn't advance
> they would have sticked with their analog MA... Can't remember now
> what it was called, it was nearly dead when I started working in that
> industry, ETACS? AMPS though is still alive and well in the USA. Of
> course it's the backup mode, but it's still there.
>
> It's a bad example to use and I stand by that assesment.
>
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