What happened to 1 handset for WCDMA & CDMA2000?

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.gsm (More info?)

A few years back the 2G cellular standards drivers got together to form
their 3G standards.
There were a few groups iirc - including GSM, CDMA, & NTT's standard.

Instead of deciding on 1 specific standard, they worked out how to make
them work together as much as possible, and incorporate all the
standards in one handset. The handset essentially had 4 related modes
and also made SIM cards as standard. ALSO, the handset would 'fall
back' to one of the original standards.

This would mean that a european handset supporting the 3G standard
would roam to any other 3G group, but could only fall back to GSM in
countries that didn't have 3G.

That's my understanding of their intentions anyway.
I know in the US some of the providers, in buying each other out, were
left with GSM and CDMA hybrid networks. In Australia, Telstra has both
a GSM and CDMA network.

As far as I can see, there are now 2 distinct networks. Today it's 3GSM
and CDMA's EV-DO. Are there any handsets that work on both? Would there
be any point anymore?

Thanks for any info
Greg

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.gsm (More info?)

Donald Newcomb wrote:
> "Greg Alexander" <galexand@ozemail.com.au> wrote:
> > As far as I can see, there are now 2 distinct networks. Today it's
> > 3GSM and CDMA's EV-DO. Are there any handsets that work on both?
> > Would there be any point anymore?
>
> Can't think of any, but if they are built, it will probably be the
> S. Koreans who do it. They are building a WCDMA-2100 net but
> with no GSM to fall-back on for coverage, it is not very popular.

I found on the Qualcomm website that they're producing a new chip
(7500) for Q2 2005, which works on CDMA's EV-DO as well as GSM/GPRS.
http://www.cdmatech.com/solutions/ [...] lution.jsp

Qualcomm seem to be looking at bridging their own CDMA with 3GSM
wherever possible, and since their CDMA patents are being used in 3GSM
anyway I guess they're trying to boost that usage.

It certainly appears that the "one phone" standard itself didn't make
it.

> I would be more concerned about multi-band (1900/2100) WCDMA
> and multi-mode 3G (TD-CDMA & WCDMA)

I haven't heard the acronym "TD-CDMA" before - is that a new standard?
I thought TD and CD were 2 different modes already used in WCDMA (aka
UMTS aka 3GSM).

Interesting

> since TD-CDMA will probably be a strong 3G service in
> the USA (Having messed up the lower half of the
> WCDMA-2100 band with PCS 1900.

I didn't realise WCDMA used the 1900Mhz spectrum.
Doesn't that give existing 1900Mhz GSM providers a prime opportunity to
move to 3G using their existing spectrum?

Thanks.
Greg