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Question

GSM vs. CMDA providers and other important questions

by Jan 31, 2014 10:19AM PST

Hi,

I can't find a suitable forum for my questions on this site so I posted my thread here.

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What are the differences between CDMA and GSM technologies.
Did these two different technologies emerge in order to solve some technology related problem or did they come about from the need to find a niche in doing cell phone service business?

I see that there are providers that have their own towers and there are those providers that use other carrier towers (which are called MVNO providers). I see a lot of MVNO providers that charge far less for cell phone service than the provider that they are piggybacking off of. For instance, carrier A has their own towers and carrier B uses carrier A's towers to offer their customers cell phone service. Carrier A charges $60/month for 500 minutes of calls, but carrier B offers unlimited calling for only $30/month. As far as I have observed, this is how it is with most MVNO providers. they offer service for less while using the same towers that carrier A uses. How is it possible for MVNO providers to offer service for far less while using the same towers as carrier A's customers use. what is going on between these two carriers business wise that allows this to happen?

Is it better to stay with MVNO providers in the long run?

I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I am looking for just the basic features for service like unlimited calling, unlimited texting, and just 500MB of data (this is plently for me). I know there is a very long list of MVNO and non MVNO carriers. how should I go about choosing the right one I don't have time to do any extensive research for each carrier.

Which carrier has the most network coverage and better phone service like call quality and such?

I have a GSM phone that is unlocked. I was told that i can use any GSM phone that is unlocked with carriers that allow their customers to use any unlocked GSM phone even if it is not sold by them.

I would greatly appreciate your help in answering my questions. Thank you and have a great day!

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
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Answer
For the technical details....
by Forum moderator Feb 1, 2014 1:24AM PST

.....Wikipedia is an excellent source for information. Use the search tool in the Cnet forums to answer most of your other questions as these are frequently asked.

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Answer
Carrier B.
by Forum moderator Feb 1, 2014 2:47AM PST

It's 30 bucks so try it out and that's going to save you a lot in one year. Many of your questions are in Wikipedia and other web sites so I'm going to defer to the web on that and stick with the bottom line.
Bob

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Answer
Wholesale/bulk business model
by Feb 1, 2014 11:41PM PST

Wikipedia explains part of the MVNO business model here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_virtual_network_operator

There's always extra network capacity, which is what is being utilized by the MVNOs.

Also, the customer service & feature set is usually limited vs the larger providers. In other words, you don't normally get free mobile-to-mobile calling, roaming agreements or extensive family share plans w/ the cheaper MVNOs. There are some good ones though, depending on what you need service-wise. Long run & short run needs of any individual customer will vary. 90% of my family & business associates use ATT, so they work well for my needs. OTOH, pre-paid may save you some $$.

If you need to use cellular service in specific areas of the U.S., look up the parent provider coverage to get a fair idea of what you can expect. If you are looking at MVNOs using Verizon's network, the native coverage maps should be pretty helpful since you can enter multiple addresses to see what's going on. Family & friends can also share their experience using Verizon/ATT/etc. Read user reports at cellular focused sites such as howardforums.com too.

While your current phone should work with ATT since it's GSM, if it does not also include UMTS/3G technologies/frequency bands, you may lose some of the better service available on their newer 3G/UMTS network.
ATT is in the process of re-allocating some of their network from the '2G' (GSM) portion to the '3G' (UMTS) portion in many areas, so that's where you could potentially miss out- even w/ an MVNO. AFAIK ATT is pretty decent around Pittsburgh, so you may be OK in any case. Howardforums has been useful for me when I've had to do a little ground level research before traveling off the grid.

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