Difference Between CDMA and GSM

    Cell phones are in wide use these days. Ever since these ultra modern communicative gadgets have come into market, they have become a style icon for many. To some its use is restricted to make & receive calls. Nowadays, a great many cellular service providers have jumped in to the foray the revolutionized the whole thing. They have given rise to two innovative wireless transmission technologies called CDMA & GSM which are doing round these days.

What is GSM?

    The GSM stands for Global System for Mobile Communications standard for cell phones which came into in the mid-1980s. GSM operates in the 900-MHz and 1800-MHz bands in Europe and India & in the 1900-MHz band in the U.S. The GSM users generally use SIM cards to get connected to the service providers. SIM cards are small removable memories that can hold all the data & identification numbers one need to access a specific wireless service provider. GSM works on the basis of TDMA which allots a particular time period on a particular frequency. GSM systems are considered more secure than CDMA systems because of its way of operation which is one of its kinds.

What is CDMA?

    CDMA implies to Code Division Multiple Access technology that is completely different compared to TDMA or GSM systems. In CDMA, first the voice signal is digitized & the resultant data is spread out over the entire frequency bandwidth. CDMA is a form of spread spectrum, which clearly means that data is sent in small pieces over a number of the discrete frequencies available for use at any time in the specified range. Moreover CDMA systems operate in both the 800-MHz and 1900-MHz frequency bands.

Advantages of GSM service:

• Variety of handsets & service providers are available to choose from.
• Call Costs are becoming cheaper every other day.
• Call quality is comparatively secure & good in GSM.
• More and more value-added services like GPRS, EDGE etc are getting added to it
• Power consumption is less in GSM handsets as compared to CDMA handsets.
• Those having a tri-band GSM phone can use it in almost every part of the world.

Disadvantages:

• Roaming call costs in GSM continue to be higher than CDMA.
• GSM phones are not full proof & can be tampered with.
• There is the chance of losing all your data when the SIM is lost if you have not stored in phone's memory.

CDMA Advantages:

• One of the greatest thing about CDMA is the cost of calls is cheaper than GSM.
• As of now the call quality is better than GSM.

Disadvantages:

• There is no availability of variety of handsets in CDMA as in case of GSM for customers.
• They are incompatible with GSM handsets.
• Another disadvantage is that in CDMA has only 2 service providers to its credit & consumers have no option in case of their decreasing service level.
• The CDMA services have not yet got the facility for the web based services like messenger, downloading ringtones etc from websites.