2. Introduction
Blackberry has provided video calling facility on
BBM for the first time on the recently launched
Blackberry Z10 and Q10 phones.
Before this, there was no video calling on
Blackberry devices.
In this presentation, I will attempt to analyse
whether a Blackberry phone with video calling
facility in CDMA will be successful in the market.
3. Two Technologies
There are two types of network technologies
for wireless communication today:
(i) CDMA
(ii) GSM
4. CDMA Technology
CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple
Access technology, which is completely
distinct from GSM system.
Code division multiple access (CDMA) is
a channel access method used by various
radio communication technologies.
5. CDMA is used as the access method in many mobile
phone standards such
as cdmaOne, CDMA2000 (the 3G evolution of
cdmaOne), and WCDMA(the 3G standard used
by GSM carriers), which are often referred to as
simply CDMA.
CDMA is used as the second and third generations of
the wireless communication.
It does not use the SIM card, rather gives a specific
serial number to the handsets.
CDMA systems use multiple access schemes, which are
pioneered by QUALCOMM, etc.
6. The conventional communication systems use constant f
requencies, CDMA uses multiple access, or multiplexing.
Accomplished through the specific type known as spread
spectrum in this case, multiplexing uses varied
frequencies to transmit audio signals. This, coupled with
code division, which requires a certain code to send and
receive the frequency, further protects
CDMA communications from interference.
While some countries outside of the United States offer
CDMA technology, it is not as widely used outside of the
U.S., as is GSM technology.
7. Unlike GSM which has a SIM card, so that the phone
can be easily swapped, CDMA cell phones have an
inbuilt R-UIM(Removable User Identity Module) where
this is not possible.
8. Advantages of CDMA
Call quality is better than GSM system.
Greater coverage for lower cost
Improved security and privacy
Increased Data Throughput
The phone calls are more secured because of
the spread spectrum.
9. Disadvantages of CDMA
Very few number of CDMA handsets are available
in the market.
It has only a few service providers, which can be
uncomfortable for the customers in case of low
service level.
If you want to upgrade the CDMA phone carrier,
you will have to deactivate the present one and
activate the new. In doing so, the phone with the
initial carrier becomes useless.
If you are frequent overseas traveller, the CDMA
coverage is sure to make you upset.
10. GSM Technology
GSM stands for Global System for Mobile
Communications.
It came in the market in the mid of 1980’s and
generally operates in the 900 and 1800-MHz
bands.
SIM cards are small in size, with removable
memories and hold a lot of data and numbers of
identification which are required to access any
wireless service provider. SIM card is bound with
the network, instead of the handset. It can be
easily interchanged with another GSM phone by
just swapping it out.
11. GSM works on the basis of Time division multiple access
(TDMA). TDMA allots a specific time period on a specific
frequency to the GSM.
GSM network connections are considered better secured
than CDMA. GSM divides its frequency bands into many
channels, so that a large number of users can make a
call through a single tower.
GSM covers up to 82% of the global market.
Presently GSM supports more than one billion mobile
subscribers in more than 210 countries throughout the
world.
12. The GSM provides basic to advanced voice and data
services including Roaming service. Roaming is the
ability to use your GSM phone number in another GSM
network.
13. Advantages of GSM
Improved spectrum efficiency.
International roaming.
Low-cost mobile sets and base stations (BSs)
High-quality speech
Compatibility with other telephone company
services.
Support for new services.
14. Disadvantages of GSM
The per-unit charge on roaming calls is higher
in GSM than CDMA.
Calls made through GSM mobiles can be
tampered.
If the SIM gets lost, one can lose all the data,
if the same is not saved in the phone.
16. The GSM Association estimates that
technologies defined in the GSM standard
serve 80% of the global mobile market,
encompassing more than 5 billion people
across more than 212 countries and
territories, making GSM the most ubiquitous
of the many standards for cellular networks.
17. Global Reach: GSM is in use over 80% of the
world’s mobile networks in over 210 countries as
compared to CDMA. CDMA is almost exclusively
used in United States and some parts of Canada
and Japan. As the European Union permissions
GSM use, so CDMA is not supported in Europe. In
North America, especially in rural areas, more
coverage is offered by CDMA as compared to
GSM. As GSM is an international standard, so it’s
better to use GSM in international roaming. GSM
is in use by 76% of users as compared to CDMA
which is in use by 24% users.
18. Coverage: The most important factor is
getting service in the areas you will be using
your phone. Upon viewing coverage maps
you can discover that GSM network has a
wider coverage as compared to CDMA
network. It is because the GSM network came
into existence before the CDMA network and
the number of GSM users are more than that
of CDMA users.
19. Data Transfer Speed: With the advent of cellular
phones doing double and triple duty as streaming
video devices, podcast receivers and email
devices, speed is important to those who use the
phone for more than making calls. CDMA has
been traditionally faster than GSM, though both
technologies continue to rapidly leapfrog along
this path. Both boast "3G" standards, or 3rd
generation technologies.
20. Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards:
Only GSM phones use SIM cards. The
removable SIM card allows phones to be
instantly activated, interchanged, swapped
out and upgraded, all without carrier
intervention. The SIM itself is tied to the
network, rather than the actual phone.
Phones that are card-enabled can be used
with any GSM carrier.
21. Security: More security is provided in CDMA
technology as compared with the GSM technology
as encryption is inbuilt in the CDMA. A unique
code is provided to every user and all the
conversation between two users are encoded
ensuring a greater level of security for CDMA
users. The signal cannot be detected easily in
CDMA as compared to the signals of GSM, which
are concentrated in the narrow bandwidth.
Therefore, the CDMA phone calls are more
secure than the GSM calls. In terms of encryption
the GSM technology has to be upgraded so as to
make it operate more securely.
22. Business Prospect
In order to find out whether the launch of
Blackberry with video calling in CDMA will
succeed or not, a comparison needs to be
drawn between video calling facilities on
CDMA and on GSM.
23. Video Calling Facility
As of yet, very few Blackberry phones support
video calling facility.
Blackberry messenger is one of the most
popular applications on the BlackBerry
platform, and now it’ll include video calling
and screen sharing on the new BlackBerry 10
phones which were launched recently.
24. The relevant criterion to be compared is the data
transfer speed. It has been seen that both technologies
can be used with 3G standard phones, but 3G GSM
speeds can be faster than 3G CDMA speeds, which can
make a big difference for those who use their phones for
social networking, email and streaming video.
They both have derivatives for use with 3G phones
known as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
(UMTS) for GSM and CDMA2000 for CDMA,
respectively.
25. The fastest 3G standard used with CDMA2000 is
EV-DO Rev B., which has downstream data rates
of about 15.67 Megabits per second (Mbit/s). The
fastest standard available with UMTS is HSPA+,
with downstream speeds of up to 28 Mbit/s.
Further, UMTS systems use stronger encryption
schemes than CDMA2000 systems do, and
provide multiple layers of protection for both the
subscriber and the network operator.
Notably, UMTS also supports wideband and ultra
wideband variants of AMR, providing higher
quality voice calls.
26. UMTS systems also support true video calling
by combining the voice channel with a video
channel (packet data channel is not used for
this).
At comparable performance and capacity
levels, UMTS uses less spectrum than
CDMA2000, but initial deployments of UMTS
require more spectrum than CDMA2000.
HSPA+ adds to a UMTS network by providing
a major upgrade to the data transport system,
which can grow to provide the data speed and
capacity subscribers need and want.
27. On the other hand, CDMA2000 is pretty much
dead in terms of innovation. The EVRC voice
codecs used in CDMA aren't nearly as good as
the GSM AMR codec family (and EVRC isn't a
well-designed codec to begin with, either).
CDMA2000 has practically no support for native
video calling, while UMTS and LTE (through
VoLTE) do.
Thus, launching a Blackberry with video calling in
CDMA will not be a viable prospect and will not
be successful in the market.