Wednesday, July 9, 2003
One Reason Why I Like GSM (GPRS) over CDMA (1XRTT)
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 03:30 PM
You can't truly understand the beauty of being able to move a GSM SIM card into a new device, and have it work, until you try to do something similar with a CDMA device. You can't.
Samsung was generous enough to send an i700, their awesome 1XRTT device with a built in camera, to review. They sent it to me a little over a month ago, and I figured "Well, Telus is the local CDMA carrier here in Calgary, so I'm sure I can connect with their PR people, get a demo account, activate the phone, and write the review." The first part went well - I got in touch with a nice lady from Telus, she said they could give me a demo account to use for the review. Then came activation time.
:soapbox:
The activation process was painful - we were looking for the ESN number, and couldn't find it on the device, so there was a flurry of emails back and forth between Telus, Samsung and myself as we tried to figure this out. By the end of the nearly month-long process, I was informed that Telus only let devices onto their network that they had been tested. Since they hadn't yet tested the i700 (and won't unless they decide to sell it), I might be able to get the i700 activated by, oh, 2004. :roll: I'll have the same problem if I can get my hands on their i600 Smartphone - which basically makes any CDMA useless to be as long as Telus has their current activation policies in place. <sigh>
Contrast that with the GSM world - I'm currently using the Fido network, and I had a SIM in my XDA until I broke it. Then I moved that SIM into my T68i and used it as a data modem over Bluetooth with my Dell X5 and a Socket Bluetooth card. When I received my SPV Smartphone, I put the SIM in that, and have been using it since. Zero problems: I just put in the SIM, and it worked.
Isn't that the way technology is supposed to be? Magical? You just plug it in and it works, the first time, and every time. The importance of being able to do that can't be overstated: while most people don't have as many devices as I do, the ease of being able to get a new phone or Pocket PC, pop in a card, and just use it, really can't be underestimated.
The CDMA people could really learn a few things from the GSM camp...
Samsung was generous enough to send an i700, their awesome 1XRTT device with a built in camera, to review. They sent it to me a little over a month ago, and I figured "Well, Telus is the local CDMA carrier here in Calgary, so I'm sure I can connect with their PR people, get a demo account, activate the phone, and write the review." The first part went well - I got in touch with a nice lady from Telus, she said they could give me a demo account to use for the review. Then came activation time.
:soapbox:
The activation process was painful - we were looking for the ESN number, and couldn't find it on the device, so there was a flurry of emails back and forth between Telus, Samsung and myself as we tried to figure this out. By the end of the nearly month-long process, I was informed that Telus only let devices onto their network that they had been tested. Since they hadn't yet tested the i700 (and won't unless they decide to sell it), I might be able to get the i700 activated by, oh, 2004. :roll: I'll have the same problem if I can get my hands on their i600 Smartphone - which basically makes any CDMA useless to be as long as Telus has their current activation policies in place. <sigh>
Contrast that with the GSM world - I'm currently using the Fido network, and I had a SIM in my XDA until I broke it. Then I moved that SIM into my T68i and used it as a data modem over Bluetooth with my Dell X5 and a Socket Bluetooth card. When I received my SPV Smartphone, I put the SIM in that, and have been using it since. Zero problems: I just put in the SIM, and it worked.
Isn't that the way technology is supposed to be? Magical? You just plug it in and it works, the first time, and every time. The importance of being able to do that can't be overstated: while most people don't have as many devices as I do, the ease of being able to get a new phone or Pocket PC, pop in a card, and just use it, really can't be underestimated.
The CDMA people could really learn a few things from the GSM camp...
