More Apple pwnage

[Kidlicious]

Yea, we do, and you have to get them activated.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Nikolai
You don't have SIM cards in the US?

How do tell your SIM card which phone #/account to use without activating it?

[Pekka]

THe phone uses the SIM card. SIM card is activated.

[Asher]

Do iPhones use sim cards?

But yes, we use the same systems here provided the phones use SIM cards.

Personally, since I think GSM is utter ****, I don't use a sim card. The CDMA networks, at least in Canada, are faster, clearer, and more reliable.

[Pekka]

GSM vs CDMA is pretty much 50/50. Both have pros and cons. I don't know what kind of crappy providers you've had experience with but GSM doesn't have considerable delay problem, nor does it suffer from noisy lines or reliability issues. Neither is considerably better, however GSM is much more supported around the world, thus you can actually use the damn phone if you have GSM

Naturally this isn't a big deal since phones do support both GSM and CDMA at the same time.

[Asher]

Is GSM more supported around the world?

I think CDMA is the most popular in North America and Asia, with GSM being popular in Europe.

[Nikolai]

A map over GSM coverage:

[Nikolai]

http://ntrg.cs.tcd.ie/undergrad/4ba2.05/group7/index.html

GSM originally stood for The Group Spéciale Mobile, a French organisation who wanted to create a digital standard for all European countries that stayed as close to the established ISDN as possible. Eight years later, in 1990, using the same initials, they produced the first Global System for Mobile Communication specification. Today, it has come a long way and is now used by over a billion people, in over 200 countries, making it 70% of the world’s mobile phone market.

[Asher]

Yes, but where is the equivalent CDMA map?

Anywhere I'd ever go in the world is covered...and in Canada and the US, much faster.

Europe is the only real GSM stronghold -- not surprising, given the origins of GSM. CDMA is dominant in Japan and North America, while GSM is dominant in Europe. But GSM does still exist in both North America and Japan, of course, but usually with only 1 provider.

In Canada, the 1 GSM provider is Rogers Wireless...and they are decidedly crap.

The CDMA providers provide more reliable service with faster speed and cleaner calls. The fact that GSM is big in the "old world" is not important to us.

[Nikolai]

The only one I found was the coverage for a CDMA/GSM hybrid phone. I'll look a little more before I go to bed.

[Asher]

From what I've read, Europe has CDMA access....I bet if you compared the maps, you'll find them identical.

I know of zero countries with GSM but no CDMA access. I think the myth that GSM is more global is just because Europeans see it as the dominant implementation there. In Japan and Canada and the US, the picture looks much different.

My poor friends in Canada on the GSM networks have painfully slow connections. Sending pictures takes quite a while, mine are virtually instantaneous...

[Nikolai]

I hate Flash pics. Can't link to them directly... Well, here's a print screen version of it.

[Asher]

Looks like a pretty global map to me. And I won't be going to those non-CDMA African nations any time soon.

[Pekka]

Slow GSM? I've not had this problem. Maybe it's with the providers in there that have the problem.

[Asher]

EDGE is the most common "high speed" GSM connection over here. It's crap.