Why is there going to be a CDMA iPhone?

[Broph]

Sorry if this isn't even actually what's happening, but the jist I get is that this new Verizon iPhone that may come out is going to be CDMA.

In New Zealand, they don't sell CDMA phones any more because they're shutting down the CDMA network later this year (maybe even next year); but it's being superseded by GSM 3G.

I thought America would be ~ 50 years ahead of NZ and already would have gotten rid of CDMA.

Another thing, I thought Verizon would be looking to go to 4G in the near future, and I'm just not seeing the point of why Apple may bring out a CDMA phone.

Can someone please enlighten me?

Once again, from NZ, so I am highly likely missing some important facts.

Cheers.

 

[lsvtecjohn3]

They're 500 million people around the world using CDMA technology I'm guessing Apple wants to get in on that market. IMO it's not really Verizon Apple cares about it's China

 

[GoCubsGo]

Because LTE is not quite ready for prime time.

 

[Applejuiced]

I thought America would be ~ 50 years ahead of NZ and already would have gotten rid of CDMA.

Another thing, I thought Verizon would be looking to go to 4G in the near future, and I'm just not seeing the point of why Apple may bring out a CDMA phone.

Can someone please enlighten me?

Once again, from NZ, so I am highly likely missing some important facts.

Cheers.

I wish we were all GSM with same exact tech on every provider like in Europe and most of the world but again we're the odd man out

 

[Broph]

I wish we were all GSM with same exact tech on every provider like in Europe and most of the world but again we're the odd man out

I tell ya what, you're not far wrong there... I'm a mechanical engineer and America in general, and them using Imperial is just so inconvenient

Butttt unfortunately quite a lot of pipe specs are in Imperial, soo I gotta live with it

 

[lsvtecjohn3]

I wish we were all GSM with same exact tech on every provider like in Europe and most of the world but again we're the odd man out

Agree then we could unlock and use any network we wanted to... Maybe when Att, Verizon and T Mobile start using LTE we will be able to.

 

[NathanA]

I thought the same as you: in order to continue being able to maintain shipping a single model (engineering-wise...two different capacities, but still essentially one model), I doubted the iPhone would come to Verizon until they fired up their LTE network. It just doesn't make a lot of sense, as you point out.

But given that Verizon is one of the two largest mobile networks in the U.S., if this is happening, then the answer to the question "why" most likely involves "money."

-- Nathan

 

[Goldinboy17]

Agree then we could unlock and use any network we wanted to... Maybe when Att, Verizon and T Mobile start using LTE we will be able to.

Still wouldn't be able to use them across. Verizon's LTE would fall back on CDMA coverage for voice and AT&T's on its GSM. Kinda like you go down to EDGE when you don't have 3G coverage.

 

[TwoSocEmBoppers]

Sorry if this isn't even actually what's happening, but the jist I get is that this new Verizon iPhone that may come out is going to be CDMA.

Yes, it will be.

In New Zealand, they don't sell CDMA phones any more because they're shutting down the CDMA network later this year (maybe even next year); but it's being superseded by GSM 3G.

Who is we? The government or the company? CDMA and GSM are different technologies.

I thought America would be ~ 50 years ahead of NZ and already would have gotten rid of CDMA.

Its kind of on its way out with LTE, but I would not call it an ancient technology. You still would have different devices for each respective carrier.

Another thing, I thought Verizon would be looking to go to 4G in the near future, and I'm just not seeing the point of why Apple may bring out a CDMA phone.

Verizon's 4G is LTE which was recently launched in major US cities.

Hope that helps!

 

[pdjudd]

I thought America would be ~ 50 years ahead of NZ and already would have gotten rid of CDMA.

You would think that, but America is very different from Australia. You simply cannot draw those kinds of comparisons.

 

[Broph]

Who is we? The government or the company? CDMA and GSM are different technologies.

The only company left in NZ that supports CDMA are shutting off their network either this year or next, can't remember.

 

[Geckotek]

The only company left in NZ that supports CDMA are shutting off their network either this year or next, can't remember.

NZ has much less area to cover and therefore it wasn't as cost prohibitive for them to jump technologies. As you can imagine, this is not the same for the US.

For US carriers it made sense to follow the current technology path until there was a forced hardware change or the current tech slowed down in development. CDMA has begun to slow down in development. Rev b is a jump in speed, but not as much as LTE. So instead of continuing on to EVDO Rev b, Verizon will finally be putting in the capital investment to upgrade their entire system to LTE instead.

Also, not all countries find themselves in the same upgrade cycle based on things like when the network was rolled out, how much it cost, how long will it take them to hit their projected ROI. There are a ton of factors. You can't just expect every country or company to follow the same logic since the determining factors will be very different.

 

[Broph]

NZ has much less area to cover and therefore it wasn't as cost prohibitive for them to jump technologies. As you can imagine, this is not the same for the US.

For US carriers it made sense to follow the current technology path until there was a forced hardware change or the current tech slowed down in development. CDMA has begun to slow down in development. Rev b is a jump in speed, but not as much as LTE. So instead of continuing on to EVDO Rev b, Verizon will finally be putting in the capital investment to upgrade their entire system to LTE instead.

Also, not all countries find themselves in the same upgrade cycle based on things like when the network was rolled out, how much it cost, how long will it take them to hit their projected ROI. There are a ton of factors. You can't just expect every country or company to follow the same logic since the determining factors will be very different.

Ah ok, can understand that more then. Righto, thanks all!

 

[DirtySocks85]

Because Verizon is the second largest carrier in the US, and it would probably make a lot of money.

 

[Namji]

And lets not forget... Apple went to Verizon wirless first when iphone was first developed but Verizon Wireless turned them down.. So IF Verzion accepted Apples proposal the iphone would have been CDMA to begin with.

 

[kdarling]

I thought America would be ~ 50 years ahead of NZ and already would have gotten rid of CDMA.

America (Verizon) _is_ years ahead of NZ (beautiful country, btw), because they're replacing CDMA-3G with LTE-4G... instead of with UMTS-3G.



A little history: back when networks started choosing sides back in the 1990s, engineers knew that CDMA radios were the way to go for capacity and speed. (Which is why GSM later used a type of CDMA radio for their UMTS-3G protocol.)

But CDMA networks were more costly, took more planning, relied on exact timing (a reason why Sprint & Verizon used GPS long before other carriers) and was considered at first almost an impossible technical feat to pull off. Thus many went GSM instead.

Other, more forward-looking and technically competent carriers chose to jump past GSM's TDMA and go straight to CDMA, knowing they'd be able to implement 3G much easier after that. This included ones in North America, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

And indeed, the CDMA carriers were able to easily add 3G whilst GSM carriers had to add an entirely new WCDMA radio network alongside their old one... a project that AT&T is still spending years trying to finish.

However, by waiting, GSM was able to take advantage of bandwidth that later became available. This allowed using wideband CDMA (WCDMA) which has the extra capacity to permit simultaneous voice+data.

 

[macsrcool1234]

Why? It's not all just about the technology.

Android is set to overtake Apple and one of the things Google touts about it is that it is available on any carrier. Apple can at least scratch that one off the list.

 

[lsvtecjohn3]

Still wouldn't be able to use them across. Verizon's LTE would fall back on CDMA coverage for voice and AT&T's on its GSM. Kinda like you go down to EDGE when you don't have 3G coverage.

not necessarily Apple could put CDMA and GSM into all the iPhones that way they only have to make on phone there's already phones that do that now.