Comparison of mobile phone standards

China Product


Comparison table

Feature

NMT motorola bluetooth hs850

GSM e2c

UMTS (3GSM) hs850

IS-95 (CDMA one)

CDMA 2000

Technology

FDMA

TDMA

W-CDMA

CDMA

CDMA

Generation

1G

2G

3G

2G

3G

Digital

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Year of First Use

1981

1991

2001

1995

2000 / 2002

Worldwide market share

0%

72%

12%

0.6%

12%

Roaming

Scandinavia

Worldwide, 200+ countries

Worldwide

Limited

Limited

Handset interoperability

None

SIM card

SIM card

None

RUIM (not commonly implemented)

Operator locking

Monopoly

Unlockable

Unlockable

ESN

ESN

Common Interference

None

Interferes with some electronics, such as amplifiers

None

None

None

Signal quality/coverage area

Good coverage due to low frequencies

Good coverage indoors on 850/900 MHz. Repeaters possible. 35 km hard limit.

Smaller cells and lower indoors coverage on 2100 MHz; equivalent coverage indoors and superior range to GSM on 850/900 MHz.

Unlimited cell size, low transmitter power permits large cells

Unlimited cell size, low transmitter power permits large cells

Frequency utilization/Call density

Very low density

0.2 MHz = 8 timeslots. Each timeslot can hold up to 2 calls through interleaving.

5 MHz = 2 Mbit/s. Each call uses 1.8-12 kbit/s depending on chosen quality and audio complexity.

 ? Comparable to UMTS

 ? Comparable to UMTS

Battery life

Low, due to high transmitter power (1 watt)

Very good due to simple protocol, good coverage and mature, power-efficient chipsets.

Lower due to high demands of WCDMA power control and young chipsets.

Lower due to high demands of CDMA power control.

Lower due to high demands of CDMA power control and young chipsets.

Handoff

Hard

Hard

Soft

Soft

Soft

Breathing

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Intellectual property

Scandinavian telecom operators

Concentrated among a few manufacturers

Concentrated among a few manufacturers

Qualcomm

Qualcomm

Traceability comparison

This section requires expansion.

Advantages of 2G GSM

GSM is mature; this maturity means a more stable network with robust features.

Less signal deterioration inside buildings.

Ability to use repeaters.

Talktime is generally higher in GSM phones due to the pulse nature of transmission.

The availability of Subscriber Identity Modules allows users to switch networks and handsets at will, aside from a subsidy lock.

GSM covers virtually all parts of the world so international roaming is not a problem.

The much bigger number of subscribers globally creates a better network effect for GSM handset makers, carriers and end users.

Disadvantages of 2G GSM

Pulse nature of TDMA transmission used in 2G interferes with some electronics, especially certain audio amplifiers. 3G uses W-CDMA now.

Intellectual property is concentrated among a few industry participants, creating barriers to entry for new entrants and limiting competition among phone manufacturers.[citation needed]

GSM has a fixed maximum cell site range of 35 km, which is imposed by technical limitations.

Advantages of IS-95

Capacity is IS-95's biggest asset; it can accommodate more users per MHz of bandwidth than any other technology.

Has no built-in limit to the number of concurrent users.

Uses precise clocks that do not limit the distance a tower can cover.

Consumes less power and covers large areas so cell size in IS-95 is larger.

Able to produce a reasonable call with lower signal (cell phone reception) levels.

Uses soft handoff, reducing the likelihood of dropped calls.

IS-95's variable rate voice coders reduce the rate being transmitted when speaker is not talking, which allows the channel to be packed more efficiently.

Has a well-defined path to higher data rates.

Disadvantages of IS-95

Most technologies are patented and must be licensed from Qualcomm.

Breathing of base stations, where coverage area shrinks under load. As the number of subscribers using a particular site goes up, the range of that site goes down.

Because IS-95 towers interfere with each other, they are normally installed on much shorter towers. Because of this, IS-95 may not perform well in hilly terrain.

IS-95 covers a smaller portion of the world, and IS-95 phones are generally unable to roam internationally.

Manufacturers are often hesitant to release IS-95 devices due to the smaller market, so features are sometimes late in coming to IS-95 devices.

Even barring subsidy locks, CDMA phones are linked by ESN to a specific network, thus phones are typically not portable across providers.

Development of the Market Share of Mobile Standards

This graphic compares the market shares of the different mobile standards.

Cellphone subscribers by technology (left Y axis) and total number of subscribers globally (right Y axis)

In a fast growing market, GSM/3GSM (red) grows faster than the market and is gaining market share, the CDMA family (blue) grows at about the same rate as the market, while other technologies (grey) are being phased out.

Comparison of wireless Internet standards

As a reference, a comparison of mobile and non-mobile wireless Internet standards follows.

 v  d  e 

Comparison of Mobile Internet Access methods

Standard

Family

Primary Use

Radio Tech

Downlink (Mbit/s)

Uplink (Mbit/s)

Notes

LTE

UMTS/4GSM

General 4G

OFDMA/MIMO/SC-FDMA

360

80

LTE-Advanced update expected to offer peak rates of at least 1 Gbit/s fixed speeds and 100 Mbit/s to mobile users.

WiMAX

802.16e

Mobile Internet

MIMO-SOFDMA

144

35

WiMAX update IEEE 802.16m expected offer up to 1 Gbit/s fixed speeds.

Flash-OFDM

Flash-OFDM

Mobile Internet

mobility up to 200mph (350km/h)

Flash-OFDM

5.3

10.6

15.9

1.8

3.6

5.4

Mobile range 18miles (30km)

extended range 34 miles (55km)

HIPERMAN

HIPERMAN

Mobile Internet

OFDM

56.9

56.9

Wi-Fi

802.11

(11n)

Mobile Internet

OFDM/MIMO

288.9

(Supports 600Mbps @ 40MHz channel width)

Antenna, RF front end enhancements and minor protocol timer tweaks have helped deploy long range P2P networks compromising on radial coverage, throughput and/or spectra efficiency (310km & 382km).

iBurst

802.20

Mobile Internet

HC-SDMA/TDD/MIMO

95

36

Cell Radius: 312 km

Speed: 250kmph

Spectral Efficiency: 13 bits/s/Hz/cell

Spectrum Reuse Factor: "1"

EDGE Evolution

GSM

Mobile Internet

TDMA/FDD

1.9

0.9

3GPP Release 7

UMTS W-CDMA

HSDPA+HSUPA

HSPA+

UMTS/3GSM

General 3G

CDMA/FDD

CDMA/FDD/MIMO

0.384

14.4

42

0.384

5.76

11.5

HSDPA widely deployed. Typical downlink rates today 2 Mbit/s, ~200 kbit/s uplink; HSPA+ downlink up to 42 Mbit/s.

UMTS-TDD

UMTS/3GSM

Mobile Internet

CDMA/TDD

16

16

Reported speeds according to IPWireless using 16QAM modulation similar to HSDPA+HSUPA

1xRTT

CDMA2000

Mobile phone

CDMA

0.144

0.144

Succeeded by EV-DO

EV-DO 1x Rev. 0

EV-DO 1x Rev.A

EV-DO Rev.B

CDMA2000

Mobile Internet

CDMA/FDD

2.45

3.1

4.9xN

0.15

1.8

1.8xN

Rev B note: N is the number of 1.25 MHz chunks of spectrum used. Not yet deployed.

Notes: All speeds are theoretical maximums and will vary by a number of factors, including the use of external antennae, distance from the tower and the ground speed (e.g. communications on a train may be poorer than when standing still). Usually the bandwidth is shared between several terminals. The performance of each technology is determined by a number of constraints, including the spectral efficiency of the technology, the cell sizes used, and the amount of spectrum available. For more information, see Comparison of wireless data standards. See also Comparison of mobile phone standards, Spectral efficiency comparison table and OFDM system comparison table.

See also

Comparison of wireless data standards

Spectral efficiency comparison table

SMS - contain the content of its standardization

References

^ "Subscriber statistics end Q1 2007". http://www.gsmworld.com/news/statistics/pdf/gsma_stats_q1_07.pdf. Retrieved 2007-09-22. 

^ http://www.gsmworld.com/news/statistics/pdf/gsma_stats_q1_07.pdf

^ http://www.arcx.com/sites/faq.htm

^ Frequently Asked PCS Questions

v  d  e

Mobile telephony and mobile telecommunications standards

0G (radio telephones)

MTS  MTA  MTB  MTC  IMTS  MTD  AMTS  OLT  Autoradiopuhelin

1G

NMT  AMPS  Hicap  Mobitex  DataTAC  TACS  ETACS

2G

GSM/3GPP family

GSM  CSD

3GPP2 family

CdmaOne (IS-95)

Other

D-AMPS (IS-54 and IS-136)  CDPD  iDEN  PDC  PHS

2G transitional

(2.5G, 2.75G)

GSM/3GPP family

HSCSD  GPRS  EDGE/EGPRS

3GPP2 family

CDMA2000 1xRTT (IS-2000)

iDEN family

WiDEN

3G (IMT-2000)

3GPP family

UMTS (UTRAN)  WCDMA-FDD  WCDMA-TDD  UTRA-TDD LCR (TD-SCDMA)

3GPP2 family

CDMA2000 1xEV-DO (IS-856)

3G transitional

(3.5G, 3.9G)

3GPP family

HSDPA  HSUPA  HSPA+  LTE (E-UTRA)

3GPP2 family

EV-DO Rev. A  EV-DO Rev. B

Other

Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e-2005)  Flash-OFDM  IEEE 802.20

4G (IMT-Advanced)

3GPP family

LTE Advanced

WiMAX family

IEEE 802.16m

Related articles

History  Cellular network theory  List of standards  Comparison of standards  Spectral efficiency comparison table  Cellular frequencies  GSM frequency bands  UMTS frequency bands  Mobile broadband

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