Location: Choosing a Smartphone

Discussion: GSM vs. CDMAReported This is a featured thread

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mmcc8394
mmcc8394
GSM vs. CDMA
Feb 23 2009, 11:24 AM EST | Post edited: Feb 23 2009, 11:25 AM EST
One of the major questions missing from this post is, assuming you're not locked into a contract yet, which carrier technology do you use? The two options are CDMA and GSM. Here's a short article describing the differences:

http://www.pctoday.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2F2006%2Ft0401%2F24t01%2F24t01.asp

The big thing to note is that CDMA phones are basically hardware "locked". In other words, if you buy a CDMA phone from Verizon, it will only work on a Verizon network and there's very little you can do to change that.GSM phones, on the other hand, can almost always be "unlocked" to run on any other GSM network. So if you buy a T-Mobile phone and then switch to AT&T (T-Mobile and AT&T are the two major GSM carriers in the US), you can get an "unlock" code for your T-Mobile phone, unlock it, and then run it on AT&T's network.

The other big advantage of a GSM phone is that's the technology used in Europe and Asia. This means if you're an international traveler that wants to bring your phone with you, GSM is definitely the technology for you. You can get the phone unlocked and then just buy SIM cards in whatever country you're in. Once you do this, your phone should work on whatever local carrier is there. Do you find this valuable?    
Keyword tags: CDMA vs GSM

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