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GSM & CDMA are two popular technologies
deployed by mobile network operators worldwide. Some operators
operate on CDMA technology while others choose to operate on
CDMA. First let us look a little about both the technologies.
GSM stands for Global System for Mobile
Communications. It was first introduced in the year 1991. It is
a digital standard defined and developed by ETSI (European
Telecommunications Standards Institute) for operation of
Cellular networks, required for mobile telephony services. GSM
started with first generation (all analogue network) and moved
to second generation (All Digital network) followed by third
generation (offers even higher speeds and greater bandwidth
utilization) and is now in it's fourth iteration or fourth
generation which offers even greater speed. 4G is commonly used
term for Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard.
CDMA stands for Code division multiple
access. Similar to GSM, it also defines standard and
technologies to enable mobile telephony. CDMA technologies
deployed by cellular network are mostly owned by Qualcomm, an US
based Semi-conductor Company. Cellular network operators license
the CDMA technology and devices from Qualcomm to deploy their
CDMA based network. Of late it's popularity has declined with
the rise of GSM. However in US, three of the popular network
carriers- Sprint, Verizon and U.S. Cellular use this technology.
In India most of the popular networks use GSM technology.
On comparing both on the basis of quality
of service, no one technology stands out to be clear winner. It
is more of the way in which cellular network operators choose to
deploy the technology to their network that decides on the
quality of service. An operator can provide the best or worst of
telecom services using any of the two technologies. However,
CDMA has been widely criticized for requiring special CDMA based
mobile handset devices which are rendered useless most of the
times in case the subscriber chooses to switch service
providers. Most of the times the CDMA handsets are tied up with
the network, unlike in case of GSM, wherein the subscriber is
free to switch operators (without changing devices) as the
subscriber information is contained in a SIM or Subscriber
identity module card.
Of late both the technologies have
graduated to offer networks which offer greater than 100 Mbps
bandwidth theoretically. The same for GSM is called 4G or LTE
Advance and EVDO & SVDO for CDMA based networks.
In India most of the players operate on GSM
technology. Around a decade back two of the biggest telecom
operators in India - Reliance & Tata, offered their services
exclusively on CDMA platform. But with changing times and better
capacity handling capability of GSM based network, they too
switched to GSM technology- although not completely. Both the
players (Tata & Reliance) now operate a dual network i.e a
newer GSM based cellular network along with the older CDMA based
network. MTS is the only player in India which operates
exclusively on CDMA network. India’s largest cellular
network in terms of number of subscribers- Airtel, operates exclusively
on GSM based network. BSNL is a goverment of India owned public
sector telecom service which operates nationwide on both the
technologies. Of late 4G has started rolling out in
India. Airtel was the first operator to introduce 4G in India. |
