People have already written about the history and the current status of both CDMA as well as GSM. Would not like to add to that.
When someone says CDMA is cheaper they are pure bluffing. The cost has **NOTHING** to do whatsoever with the pricing. Reliance thinks it can rope in large volumes in terms of consumers so offers a low enough price. Someone used an analogy about CDMA being able to use the spectrum more effectively but forget the fact that it is not able to scale up as easily as GSM in terms of subscriber growth.
Yes, CDMA does offer better utilization of spectrum. But, spectrum is just one of various variable costs attached to running/setting a wireless network.
GSM is cheaper to run if expensive to set up. There is a LOT of support available. The Value Added Services for GSM are available off-the-shelf whereas, in case of CDMA, since its controlled(rather brutally) by Qualcomm developer support for applications is limited and any and all developers need to pay CDMA development fees. CDMA does not encourage open standard thereby, rendering any kind of interaction between desktop and mobile applications extremely difficult.
The tragedy however is that by encouraging two competing technologies within the same geographic circles the Policy Makers I believe have committed a blunder.
Naive people might think that competition is good. Yes, competition amongst the Providers is good! But, amongst standards it is not’cos they don’t remain’Standard’ nemore if their is competition.
The end result of the confusion is that half the services/functions available on one are not available on the other. And guess who suffers?
a> The consumer! Why?’cos the poor guy is always confused about which is a better option
b> The Mobile Service Providers(MSPs) themselves. These poor guys can’t make out why their Value Added Services won’t work?! Well I got a simple answer:’They don’t have the mass support’’cos people are divided between two competing technologies.
I won’t say one is better than the other. If CDMA is proprietory GSM ain’t all that Big a HIGH FLYER when it comes to standards!
But sure can tell you ppl that 3-5 yrs down the line if you think everyone would use EITHER CDMA or GSM you are mistaken. 3-5 yrs down the line ppl would use CDMA AND GSM. Only problem would be that no one would be sure how to access what service on either!
Gotta remember that down the line mobile ain’t gonna be just for voice but ALSO for voice.