does anybody know of any confirmed or at least frequently spoken about rumors about sprint providing phones that work internationally sometime soon?
is there something technologically, or otherwise, that makes it difficult to design a phone to use both cdma and gsm? so that it may work cdma in the us and gsm in europe?
really would like to know... and if this isnt't happenning,, can we make a poll,,
wondering how many ppl would benefit from this,,, and if the numbers were good,,,, sprint might consider?
Good question. We have touched on it a few times, so I will make this quick.
Sprint PCS is not planning on making any international phones. CDMA and GSM are not compatible at all. When 3G comes to full world-wide completion, it is planned to have multi-carrier, multi-3G technology, international roaming capabilities. But until it happens, I am not sure it will happen.
by those two services being apples and oranges, it is also politics involved.. sprints money and stake is in pcs cdma, their whole stgructure is built around that. for them to invest in gsm or any other scheme, would require large amounts of capital...
I'm not sure, but it's also possible that Qualcomm (who licenses the CDMA chipset to manufacturers) might have (*cough* *cough*) disincentives in place to discourage anyone from making dual-mode GSM + CDMA phones.
From an engineering point of view, it would be straightforward (if bulky), since it would basically entail combining the radio and computer parts of two phones with a single case, display, and battery. The market for such a phone would be fairly small (since few people genuinely care whether their cdma phone works in gsm countries, particularly since buying a second phone isn't expensive relative to the cost of paying a premium for a phone that combines both).
On the other hand, it's definitely in Qualcomm's best interest to keep CDMA and gsm as far apart as possible by discouraging dual-mode phones. Why? Sprint PCS is obviously safely in Qualcomm's camp, but other carriers (Verizon comes to mind) with heterogenous networks might be tempted to stray from the One True Path (CDMA) and flirt with GSM if they could get away with forcing nationwide customers to buy CDMA+GSM phones. As it is, they wouldn't DARE to do it, because it would be too much of a hassle for their customers.
NOW, if only Qualcomm would throw its weight around a little and prod phone makers into implementing some of the optional CDMA components that exist on paper, but haven't actually been used in any commercially available phone (like the functional equivalent of SIMD cards) because carriers are either not interested in them or actively oppose their availability.
My only REAL complaint with CDMA in general is the way it has (so far) enabled carriers to maintain a stranglehold on the phones customers can use on their networks. For the most part, the REAL customers of CDMA phones aren't end users... it's the carriers themselves. Fortunately, I'm with Sprint, who has the newest and best toys first anyway, but still it WOULD be nice to know I could buy and use any CDMA phone I wanted to use, rather than being limited to those that Sprint feels are appropriate for their customers to use.
yeah it would be nice for us customers to use whatever phone we wanted... and that may happen someday... but as long as sprint keeps pumping out great palm/phones and move forward in 3,4,5 G... .. then i will be a happy camper.
hell, ill get a satellite phone if i need to go overseas...
Originally posted by miamicanes ...but other carriers (Verizon comes to mind) with heterogenous networks might be tempted to stray from the One True Path (CDMA) and flirt with GSM if they could get away with forcing nationwide customers to buy CDMA+GSM phones. As it is, they wouldn't DARE to do it, because it would be too much of a hassle for their customers.
Actually, Vodafone(?) over in Europe, which owns a significant percentage of Verizon stock, has been pressuring Verizon to switch over to GSM, which Vodafone uses. Currently, Vodafone has roaming agreements with Voicestream in place for their customers who have "world-phones" to be able to use them when they're in the US. Ideally, I'm sure Vodafone would like to stop paying for those expensive roaming agreements and have their customers be able to seamlessly roam on their own US GSM Network (the would-be GSM Verizon network) when they travel to the US.
Q for the ppl in the Know
.. then i will be a happy camper.
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