Cell phones, does GSM have longer range then CDMA? Here's why I ask.

Ok, finally in a little borough in northern NH, bordering Vermont area I can finally get cell phone reception. Reason being is they erected a tower in Lancaster, NH (Mount Orne). I know for sure tower services Unicel and US Cellular not sure on other carriers. At Dad's my Razer with AT&T service which I know uses the unicell tower in that location is either full bars or full bars minus one regardless of where I am in the house. So Dad is intrigued and I get him a Tracfone to see how he likes it. I get him a Kyocera K126C and buy him some minutes. Funny thing is, his phone reception is much poorer then mine, only one to three bars out of five. I look up info on the phone and find it's a CDMA phone. Also the phone indicates a 1X network which I know is CDMA from my Verizon days. So unless Verizon is the only one that uses the 1X technology, I'm assuming tracfone is using the USCelluar part of the tower unless Verizon has service there too. A year ago, I could not get Verizon service either so if signal is Verizon, I'm assuming it also must be originating from that tower.

So any explanations why the differences in signal strength? Could it simply be a phone issue where the Kyocera is really a crappy phone or does GSM provide further range the CDMA? Is there a way to find out for sure if the phone is using the US Cellular carrier? Upon further research I see the store where I bought the phone has a Motorola phone with a sim card so I know it must be GSM. I wish I had boughten that instead. If this phone doesn't work out, I wonder how difficult it is to transfer activated minutes from one tracfone to another.

CDMA is a longer range service than GSM. Why, CDMA is analogue just like a normal two way radio so it is possible for the signal to fade and still work OK, GSM suffers from Propagation delay limiting the range to about 35 kilometres. So on a good day it is possible for a CDMA signal to travel a hundred kilometres or more.
Your problem, the CDMA tower is probably much further away than the GSM tower.
Norm

hi geepondy,

cdma phones should not be judged by how many bars are showing.
they will sometimes show one to zero bars and still have perfect reception.

my advice would be to actually test out the phone in real use and see how the reception handles through that new tower.

also i would like to point out that motorola and nokia are known for their exceptional RF.

I thought CDMA is digital unless I have my acronyms mixed up? I know it is using the 1x network which I am fairly sure is digital. You are right about analog vs. digital though. A few years ago now, I had a Verizon analog phone, actually one that did both analog and digital. When I visited parents before this new tower was erected, I could get Verizon from another tower that I would guess was 15 miles away as the crow flies. Only one bar and scratchy but I could get it and understand a conversation. Then service went all digital and I could not longer get it.

Norm said:

CDMA is a longer range service than GSM. Why, CDMA is analogue just like a normal two way radio so it is possible for the signal to fade and still work OK, GSM suffers from Propagation delay limiting the range to about 35 kilometres. So on a good day it is possible for a CDMA signal to travel a hundred kilometres or more.
Your problem, the CDMA tower is probably much further away than the GSM tower.
Norm

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Well the tower is probably about 2500 feet up about maybe three miles from my dads who is 1100 feet up. I'll have dad do plenty of experimenting between now and Christmas, the next time I am up.

THE_dAY said:

hi geepondy,

cdma phones should not be judged by how many bars are showing.
they will sometimes show one to zero bars and still have perfect reception.

my advice would be to actually test out the phone in real use and see how the reception handles through that new tower.

also i would like to point out that motorola and nokia are known for their exceptional RF.

Click to expand...

The "bars" are not standardized. They mean nothing in particular. There should be a diagnostic setting that shows the signal strength. That is also dependent on the individual phone's design and state of tune.

I thought that CDMA was digital encoding of an analog signal. I could be wrong.

Daniel

geepondy said:

I thought CDMA is digital unless I have my acronyms mixed up? I know it is using the 1x network which I am fairly sure is digital. You are right about analog vs. digital though. A few years ago now, I had a Verizon analog phone, actually one that did both analog and digital. When I visited parents before this new tower was erected, I could get Verizon from another tower that I would guess was 15 miles away as the crow flies. Only one bar and scratchy but I could get it and understand a conversation. Then service went all digital and I could not longer get it.

Click to expand...

Sorry of course your correct I was confusing CDMA with our old analogue system. :sigh:
Norm :sick2:

CDMA utilizes both digital and analog. The digital signal is primary, but if unavailable, it will find the analog signal.

In areas that were well developed with analog towers for coverage, CDMA had the advantage of better coverage over newer digital coverage because where the newer digital coverage was spotty, the analog capability of CDMA would provide coverage.

Someone earlier stated coverage distances - sorry I can't relate to metric. I was told that digital towers are good for 5 miles max, really less; where an analog signal is good for 20-25 miles. Analog also utilized 3 watt phones where digital is about .25 watt explaining why talk time is so much longer.

Digital towers handle far more traffic than analog, but need many more towers than analog for the same geographic coverage. They are even more expensive than the older analog ones and when a carrier converts to digital, it's a complete redo for coverage. Dense areas get towers and other areas wait until the network grows to justify the expenditure of new towers. CDMA was able to take advantage by using the older analog technology already in place where the digital was still too far away to use.

I stayed with CDMA until the carrier shut it down (supposedly the feds forced them to) and then converted to GSM on the same network because they offered me the same unlimited plan to convert. If digital is supposed to be superior, I'd like to know how. I have never had close to the amount of dropped and failed calls that I have now.

hi geepondy,

here are coverage maps for at&t and verizon:

at&t

verzion

both maps have the ability to zoom in.
you can check them out and see how good the coverage *should be* in you dad's area.

The newer GSM networks are better for the service providers, in that the same spectrum can handle nearly 10x the calls made compared to the analog type. That mean less spectrum to buy and more customers. I have had experience where the analog gets so crowded that I have had to wait 5 minutes to make an urgent call to get thru. That is in the city center with the financial hubs. So thats why they went digital. The bottom line.

If Verizon takes over up in that area, I don't think any GSM phones will work since Verizon does not use GSM.

If your phone takes a SIM card, then it is GSM. No iPhone coverage in non GSM areas.

I know there is pending approval of Verizon to acquire one of the GSM providers in the Northeast.

Yes, there has been talk of Verizon selling off their services in that area. Many people hope it happens as it is hoped perhaps a smaller company will deem in worthwhile to invest in the infrastructure to bring broadband to the the smaller communities that don't currently have it and which there are no apparent plans for them to have it from Verizon or otherwise.

Regarding his phone though, as mentioned the screen displays that fact that it uses the 1x network so it isn't GSM (plus no sim card) and I'm betting it must be US Cellular as I know for sure the tower services it unless like I said, Verizon has exclusive rights to that network.

At the place where I bought the tracfone, they also offered a more expensive motorola that uses a sim card so I gather that must be GSM, indicating that tracfone leases service from both types.

Verizon and US Cellular are both CDMA carriers and they do have roaming agreements.

Yes, it's definitely US Cellular because he called me on and and that is what caller ID displayed. I know I've been told to ignore the bars but I'm still puzzled over the huge discrepancy between his and my phone, especially now I know for sure the signals are both originating from the same tower. I also know with my phone, I can drive five miles further away and still receive a pretty good signal. If he has any problems at all when I return at Christmas I will exchange his phone for the Tracfone Motorola which I assume must use the GSM unicel like my AT&T. Hopefully Tracfone would let me transfer the minutes.

geepondy said:

Yes, it's definitely US Cellular because he called me on and and that is what caller ID displayed. I know I've been told to ignore the bars but I'm still puzzled over the huge discrepancy between his and my phone, especially now I know for sure the signals are both originating from the same tower.

Click to expand...

Some phones have better radios than others. That's independent of the carrier that's involved. Some will work better in fringe areas than others of the exact same model.

The bars are only good for relative measurement on the same phone. In theory, two phones of the same model should have the same scale for signal strength per bar. In practice, they may not.

I would not change carriers without trying to trade in the phone.

Daniel