CAT Telecom Ready To Abandon CDMA

[george]

CAT ready to abandon CDMA

Mobile network will switch over to GSM

BANGKOK: -- CAT Telecom is preparing to abandon CDMA technology for its money-losing mobile-phone service and migrate to the GSM system that is in more widespread use throughout the world.

The state telecom enterprise has held talks with cellular partner Hutchison and with the two operators holding CAT concessions, DTAC and True Move, and all agreed that switching to GSM was the right idea, said a senior CAT executive who asked not to be named.

CAT provides the Hutch CDMA service in 25 central provinces including Bangkok in a joint venture with Hutchison under CAT Wireless Multimedia.

However, the Hutch service has managed to attract only about 700,000 customers in a mobile market of 54 million.

Huawei Technology last year completed a 7.2-billion-baht expansion of the CDMA system to allow CAT to offer nationwide coverage, but the Chinese firm is locked in a dispute with CAT over fines for late delivery of the system.

The expanded network infrastructure would not go to waste because it can be adapted to the GSM platform.

The executive said CAT had concluded that continuing to use CDMA technology would lead to mounting losses because most of the world had now shifted to GSM technology, although CDMA is still popular in the United States and Japan.

''Continuing service on CDMA will lead to a deadlock and we also will miss the technology advancement bandwagon,'' he said.

CAT intends to migrate to HSDPA or High Speed Downlink Packet Access. The technology improves the performance of W-CDMA networks, but more importantly has become the technology of choice for third-generation (3G) services on GSM networks.

With higher data transfer speeds and greater system capacity, mobile users would have access to high-speed broadband multimedia services including internet access and rapid downloading of e-mails with attachments, wireless audio, DVD-quality video and multi-player gaming among other applications.

The executive said it had become clear that operating a nationwide CDMA network would not be financially viable, even if subscriber numbers increased.

A major problem is the new interconnection system, under which operators charge each other for calls handled across different networks. He said that Hutch would end up as a net payer since it has so few customers compared with the three large operators.

The executive said CAT and Hutch agreed that now was an opportune time to start shifting to a new platform since the government was still deciding how to handle the issuing of 3G licences.

If the two big CAT concession holders, DTAC and True Move, migrated to 3G service using the same frequencies allocated to CAT and its state enterprise sibling TOT, more services could be offered based on HSDPA, he said.

He said the switch to GSM would not cost much money because some network infrastructure could be reused.

While there could be some impact on businesses developing content and applications for CDMA, they are expected to be able to adapt quickly and benefit from rapid take-up of new 3G services.

Worldwide, 86% of all cellular customers use 316 GSM-based networks in 147 countries. A total of 190 networks in 83 countries offer WCDMA, and 154 networks in 71 countries have HSDPA.

The executive said that CAT could form joint ventures with Hutch and True Move to provide mobile broadband services using the same 850 MHz bandwidth that CAT and Hutch now use.

-- Bangkok Post 2008-02-22

[george]

R.I.P.

It was good though....

[nikster]

Good choice.

The problem with using CDMA is that there is no roaming and no decent handsets. Because everyone else is using GSM. I don't even think CDMA roaming would work between the US and other CDMA using countries.

Roaming is a much bigger deal than you'd think, business-wise - I remember one of the Canadian providers figured that while switching to GSM would cost them billions, they would recoup that via roaming fees alone within a few years. The fact that roaming fees are outrageous might help that of course..

[david96]

R.I.P.

It was good though....

CDMA has twice the range of GSM, most people use a mobile phone for voice calls. This is important for people living in remote areas as in Australia where it is the only system, 3G is to replace it.

[Crushdepth]

I'm not sure that I would describe moving to GSM as a step 'forward', or that throwing more money at their network will give them more customers. I can't help wondering if this decision has something to do with some palms being greased via a big fat procurement contract.

I guess this means broadband mobile internet services are going to be delayed a few more years. The future always looks so bright it just never seems to arrive :-)

[monty]

Weird, they just spent buckets full of cash on upgrading to the EV-DO system!

CAT provides the Hutch CDMA service in 25 central provinces including Bangkok in a joint venture with Hutchison under CAT Wireless Multimedia.

Not sure I comprehend this one, I was of the impression Hutch provided CDMA in the 25 central provinces while CAT covered the rest of Thailand!

[dave_boo]

Ouch, and I was just going to go get a CAT CDMA modem. No use in spending the 12k baht for a year's service if it's not going to last that long. It always amazes me how govermental organizations can not plan ahead. You know a cost analysis would have been nice and saved the ooops, we guess it's going to be too expensive. I also find that cross network charge to be fishy. I'm sure that they can structure it into the fees applied to consumers (if they don't already).

Talking to the inlaws, it seems that CAT had a bad reputation. Screwing over current/potential customers won't rectify that! And expecting DTAC and True to use the same frequency as CAT is idiotic since they were so eager to move to CDMA!

[Plus]

I don't think Dtac and True want to move to CDMA, they are just testing 3G services on available frequencies. You can argue that their 3G is a development of CDMA, but it will be complementary to their GSM network, they are not moving tens of millions of their subscribers from GSM.

[nikster]

Sounds to me they just want to move to a more wide-spread standard and remain on the same frequencies.

From a business perspective GSM/HSDPA makes a lot of sense. People can keep their phones and switch to CAT; CAT gets revenue from roaming customers; CAT can offer the cool phones - all stuff that wouldn't be possible with the CDMA networks.

CAT never really advertised their CDMA / EV-DO network so they have hardly any subscribers that will be affected - this is a good time to switch

[Florin]

CDMA has twice the range of GSM

I was taught that it is exactly the opposite, that you need more transmitters to blanket an area with CDMA coverage than you do with GSM

In any case, it doesn't make any sense to do this right after all those investments and I can't see how much of the infrastructure they could actually re-use...

[Thanh-BKK]

And there goes the only network in all Thailand that was usable for those with pacemakers (0.2 Watts max power), the only network that offered crystal-clear voice transmission with background-noise-canceling and the only mobile network that had DECENT DATA SPEED.

Back to the stone age with GSM, dropped calls, unusable slow GPRS and no reception in basements and elevators.

Why? So that hi-so Thais can continue toting the latest and greatest Nokias or iPhones every couple of months.

I'll stop being a Hutch customer when they switch to GSM, even if the give me a brand new highest-end phone.

Thanh

Edited February 25, 2008 by Thanh-BKK

[george]

I hope they will run it at least for a year. The service is/was much better than Ipstar. I guess this news means that they will be merged with DTAC later on.

[nikster]

CDMA has twice the range of GSM

I was taught that it is exactly the opposite, that you need more transmitters to blanket an area with CDMA coverage than you do with GSM

In any case, it doesn't make any sense to do this right after all those investments and I can't see how much of the infrastructure they could actually re-use...

There's a lot of confusion here, so I will try to clear up things I know:

Range: A common mistake is to confuse a technology (CDMA) with a standard (GSM). 3G GSM is a CDMA technology called WCDMA so whether or not CDMA has longer range is irrelevant - it's the same thing.

HSDPA - which is what CAT wants to use - has a theoretical downlink speed of 7Mbps which is better than EV-DO which it is currently using (2.4Mbps).

It might come as a complete surprise to expats but: There is NOTHING to complain about here. CAT wants to build a *much better* system than it currently has, and one that will be compatible with the majority of systems deployed world-wide.

Most of this is in the original article:

CAT intends to migrate to HSDPA or High Speed Downlink Packet Access. The technology improves the performance of W-CDMA networks, but more importantly has become the technology of choice for third-generation (3G) services on GSM networks.

The only people that might possibly complain are those who just bought the EV-DO card for 13,000 Baht. I have such a card, but I'd much rather have HSDPA. I'll just buy a HSDPA card. HSDPA and its big brother HSUPA not only have faster downloads speeds than EV-DO, they also have lower latency and much higher upload speeds.

In addition, I will be able to use the HSDPA card in other countries - just pop in a SIM with a proper data plan, and off you go. That alone would be extremely valuable to me. EV-DO is not even compatible with other EV-DO systems... I am in the USA right now where Sprint runs an EV-DO network but I can't use my card because EV-DO doesn't have SIM cards, all the provider info is hard-coded into the card. It's just plain dumb.

Please, stop whining. This will be a lot better. It's the right thing to do, and the sooner the better. Sure, it would have been smart to do this before even rolling out CDMA EV-DO, but better now than later.

I don't know how CAT expects to re-use existing equipment. Maybe somebody with experience in building mobile network would know.. it's the same frequency and a similar technology - maybe they can just upgrade the existing CDMA equipment to WCDMA?

Edited February 26, 2008 by nikster

[mellow1]

I'm using CAT CDMA, but not the one with the card, the one where the speed is 130 Kbts. All I know is that when I first got it , it was pretty good. Now it seems to be getting worse all the time. Anyone else experiencing this?

[Dave the Dude]

I'm using CAT CDMA, but not the one with the card, the one where the speed is 130 Kbts. All I know is that when I first got it , it was pretty good. Now it seems to be getting worse all the time. Anyone else experiencing this?

HI MELLOW1

I too use CAT CDMA but with 230.4 speed card. I have not noticed any constant speed reductions. Maybe you could speed up/clean out your computer performance another way???

Good luck

DAve

[mellow1]

I'm using CAT CDMA, but not the one with the card, the one where the speed is 130 Kbts. All I know is that when I first got it , it was pretty good. Now it seems to be getting worse all the time. Anyone else experiencing this?

HI MELLOW1

I too use CAT CDMA but with 230.4 speed card. I have not noticed any constant speed reductions. Maybe you could speed up/clean out your computer performance another way???

Good luck

DAve

Nothing wrong with computer. It's mostly service interruption, or overload like on Sunday afternoons. If you do a speed test you will see your speed will never exceed 130Kbts. Thanks for your suggestion though.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hello

First of all, "re-using the equipment" would pretty much be limited to the masts - everything else will have to be replaced. CAT/Hutch CDMA runs on 800 MHz. GSM runs on either 850 (U.S.A. only), 900, 1.800 or 1.900. W-CDMA runs on 1.900 or 2.100. So they can't re-use transmitters and antennas.

Then GSM and CDMA are entirely different protocols, hence they can't re-use any of the other equipment either!

To change from CDMA to GSM means, quite simply, building an entire new network from scratch. Same with "upgrading" from GSM to "3G" which is W-CDMA. THAT is the main reason why "3G" has a rather slow acceptance - the extreme high costs of building the entirely new networks for the few customers that actually WANT it.

CAT/Hutch have the strategy in place - a CDMA network that is upgradeable. 1x to EV-DO, then EV-DO to EV-DV (24 Mbps!). All by changing software, the hardware stays the same and in place!

But T.I.T. and here, despite CAT owning Hutch or vice versa or whatever, the two of them can't get their heads out of their asses and stop "competing" each other instead of just working together! Why they have such few customers? Because Hutch users have only central; Thailand, CAT users have the rest. Each can roam on the other's network but who wants to use data is left out. Childish and simply incompetent by BOTH operators.

Then, their marketing SUCKS big time. You can't win customers with cheap promotions if they can't use their existing phones! Thais change SIM cards every few weeks, whenever there is a newer, cheaper, promotion from some other network. Hutch/CDMA should market with what they have - excellent data speeds, low transmission power (that is important for health-aware folks who are scared to use a mobile phone because it "might fry their brains" or such people with pacemakers or reliance on other medical equipment that might malfunction if near a GSM phone!) and their superb voice quality! Not even once since using Hutch CDMA i had to ask "huh, what did you say?" and likewise the people i spoke with!

Then they should stop tying the phones to their networks, having Hutch Home as WAP startpage is fine but disabling downloads of content from other providers sucks again, that won't come well for Thai teens who need those ringtones and wallpaper cartoons. Also why make only such few phones available? Go to China, Hutch people, and look what phones THEY have! Even GSM/CDMA in one, because China Unicom runs both networks and is intelligent enough to give folks phones so they can USE both! Then in China there are no stupid restrictions - all phones are 100% open and they use SIM cards too!

Hey Hutch/CAT, Thais want NOKIA for Pete's sake, GIVE THEM NOKIA!! Nokia produces a ton of CDMA models, why don't we have any of them in Thailand???

And if Hutch/CAT would follow that simple advice given by me in those last few lines here, they would soon have more customers than AIS.

I stay with CDMA till the day they shut it down. GSM sucks.

Best regards.....

Thanh

[dave_boo]

Thanh, you do bring up some good points. However, I think that those dual GSM/CDMA phones may not work on CAT/Hutch's networks. I don't think they use the correct frequency.

If nothing else, this can teach us that a free market is usually the best thing. A government agency trying to run things isn't always going to get things correct, in fact it will probably end up FUBAR'd, while those companies that have to make money will do everything they can to rake it in. And that's giving customers what they want (read think they need).

As a side note, I do think that I'm going to go ahead and get one of those usb CDMA modems. It won't cost anymore than what I'm paying now for GPRS, and assuming that they actually have EV-DO up here in Nakhon Sawan Province, will be quite a bit better for me.

[billd766]

Hello

First of all, "re-using the equipment" would pretty much be limited to the masts - everything else will have to be replaced. CAT/Hutch CDMA runs on 800 MHz. GSM runs on either 850 (U.S.A. only), 900, 1.800 or 1.900. W-CDMA runs on 1.900 or 2.100. So they can't re-use transmitters and antennas.

Then GSM and CDMA are entirely different protocols, hence they can't re-use any of the other equipment either!

To change from CDMA to GSM means, quite simply, building an entire new network from scratch. Same with "upgrading" from GSM to "3G" which is W-CDMA. THAT is the main reason why "3G" has a rather slow acceptance - the extreme high costs of building the entirely new networks for the few customers that actually WANT it.

CAT/Hutch have the strategy in place - a CDMA network that is upgradeable. 1x to EV-DO, then EV-DO to EV-DV (24 Mbps!). All by changing software, the hardware stays the same and in place!

But T.I.T. and here, despite CAT owning Hutch or vice versa or whatever, the two of them can't get their heads out of their asses and stop "competing" each other instead of just working together! Why they have such few customers? Because Hutch users have only central; Thailand, CAT users have the rest. Each can roam on the other's network but who wants to use data is left out. Childish and simply incompetent by BOTH operators.

Then, their marketing SUCKS big time. You can't win customers with cheap promotions if they can't use their existing phones! Thais change SIM cards every few weeks, whenever there is a newer, cheaper, promotion from some other network. Hutch/CDMA should market with what they have - excellent data speeds, low transmission power (that is important for health-aware folks who are scared to use a mobile phone because it "might fry their brains" or such people with pacemakers or reliance on other medical equipment that might malfunction if near a GSM phone!) and their superb voice quality! Not even once since using Hutch CDMA i had to ask "huh, what did you say?" and likewise the people i spoke with!

Then they should stop tying the phones to their networks, having Hutch Home as WAP startpage is fine but disabling downloads of content from other providers sucks again, that won't come well for Thai teens who need those ringtones and wallpaper cartoons. Also why make only such few phones available? Go to China, Hutch people, and look what phones THEY have! Even GSM/CDMA in one, because China Unicom runs both networks and is intelligent enough to give folks phones so they can USE both! Then in China there are no stupid restrictions - all phones are 100% open and they use SIM cards too!

Hey Hutch/CAT, Thais want NOKIA for Pete's sake, GIVE THEM NOKIA!! Nokia produces a ton of CDMA models, why don't we have any of them in Thailand???

And if Hutch/CAT would follow that simple advice given by me in those last few lines here, they would soon have more customers than AIS.

I stay with CDMA till the day they shut it down. GSM sucks.

Best regards.....

Thanh

Hi Thanh

Actually they can use everything except the equipment, the power supplies and the actual antennas.

This is what a lot of operators in Asia Pacific are doing now. They get a cheap network put in by Hua Wei (I think) and rip it out a year or so later to re-equip with some good Nokia/Ericsson etc kit. The biggest expense in any network is the infrastructure as the equipment is relatively cheap.

This is what I do for a living when somebody asks me to. I have been in the cellular phone business since 1987 with Vodafone in the UK and since then I have been paid to see a lot of the world.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hello

Thanks for both replies Well as i said - equipment re-use is a no-no (the computers and trunk lines maybe? Those directional transmission thingies... whatever it's called, i know what it is but don't know in English, sorry). They better stick to CDMA, Huawei can't be that bad...... the Chinese also make some very good stuff, sure lots of crap but good things as well.

About those CDMA-GSM phones, YES they would work on Hutch! Hutch tends to tell people that "any CDMA phone from abroad will not work" only to get them to buy new ones here.... but i did test it myself (and can still show anyone who wants to see) with a (Nokia!!) CDMA phone that was brought from Indonesia (Telkom). Works just fine on Hutch. Or maybe that works just fine because it doesn't know that Hutch says it doesn't? I actually have an anecdote to that, true story:

So me, armed with that poor phone and a pre-paid Hutch SIM in it walks to the Hutch shop in MBK. Surrounded by all those phones the folks in there should know their stuff, yes? So i ask: "If i buy a phone somewhere, for example Indonesia, and bring it here, can i put my Hutch SIM in there and use it?" And i got this reply (in good English!):

"Sorry sir, Hutch system is different from other CDMA system. Phone from abroad can not work even when support the SIM card, you can not make the call".

So i took the phone out of my pocket, put it on the counter, and dialled it's number from my regular Hutch phone. It rang, and i asked her to pick it up "for test". She did, and i told her right thru the airwaves "You see, you are talking to me on an Indonesian phone with Hutch SIM and it seems to work just fine, no?"

Reply: "Oh-oh... i don't know.. sorry sir no speak English".

Morale of the story: Any CDMA phone that operates on 800 MHz (which is the vast majority of them) and supports SIM cards (which again are many as it's used in Thailand, China and Indonesia) WILL work on Hutch AND CAT. Regardless what they try to tell you in order to sell you one of their own.

Besides there WAS a test and review on www.hutchclub.com last year with one such CDMA-GSM phone (i think it was a Samsung) from China, and it was clearly seen - Hutch and D-TAC at the same time (yup, those are active with both systems simultaneously).

With best regards.....

Thanh

[nikster]

Hi Thanh

Actually they can use everything except the equipment, the power supplies and the actual antennas.

This is what a lot of operators in Asia Pacific are doing now. They get a cheap network put in by Hua Wei (I think) and rip it out a year or so later to re-equip with some good Nokia/Ericsson etc kit. The biggest expense in any network is the infrastructure as the equipment is relatively cheap.

This is what I do for a living when somebody asks me to. I have been in the cellular phone business since 1987 with Vodafone in the UK and since then I have been paid to see a lot of the world.

Thanks for explaining. Makes sense too... Telstra in Australia switched from CDMA to "3G GSM" aka WCDMA as well.

I am pretty sure they didn't do it because they wanted to install worse technology and pay a lot for it... in fact I somehow suspect Telstra did it to maximize profits. CAT may be thinking along those lines too, you never know ... I know some others here think that's the least likely reason, just putting it out there

[GlutinousMaximus]

There's another interesting article on a similar subject at Bangkok Post with quotes from Martin Gutberlet, research vice-president of Gartner's technology and service provider research group.

Bangkok Post Database Article

Here's a quote from the analyst:

Asked how he saw the future of CAT Telecom / Hutchinson's CDMA2000 network, Gutberlet said, "It looks like CDMA is not going to be a winning standard. One of the largest CDMA networks, Verizon in the US, has recently announced that its commitment to LTE (4G) for the next generation, which means that there is little progress to be seen in this standard", he explained.

[klikster]

The future always looks so bright it just never seems to arrive :-)

Great line, Crushdepth.

[dave_boo]

There's another interesting article on a similar subject at Bangkok Post with quotes from Martin Gutberlet, research vice-president of Gartner's technology and service provider research group.

Bangkok Post Database Article

Here's a quote from the analyst:

Asked how he saw the future of CAT Telecom / Hutchinson's CDMA2000 network, Gutberlet said, "It looks like CDMA is not going to be a winning standard. One of the largest CDMA networks, Verizon in the US, has recently announced that its commitment to LTE (4G) for the next generation, which means that there is little progress to be seen in this standard", he explained.

Quite an interesting read. Of course, Japan is going to railroad this, but Thailand is only slightly insane to think they can keep up with the Land of the Rising Sun neighbors. Seeing how far they're behind now, how do they think they'll be able to start to roll it out when the standard hasn't even been ratified yet?

[BigSnake]

About time

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

Actually the Japanese networks (FOMA etc) are nothing but regular CDMA 2000-EV-DO networks respectively EV-DV test platforms..... just that they, in order to be "unique", inverted the uplink/downlink frequencies. If they hadn't done so, every Japanese tourist could roam on Hutch and Hutch would have some revenue from that area. But i guess that is exactly what the clever Japanese try to prevent.........

As for "CDMA being not popular" i wonder who dreams up such statistics - only because the U.S. are, as with many other things, still stuck in the stone age? The future would be SIM cards in CDMA which allows roaming possibilities, easy phone swaps etc pp, however again block-headedness of the operators ("we must tie our customers to our phones, other phones may be dangerous") prevents such innovation over there.

So in the U.S. and Ozzyland it's the lack of innovation, in Thailand it's the lack of marketing. Japan is CDMA-crazy without the users knowing it (or caring for), India is a mass-market for CDMA (SIM cards "coming soon" on Reliance), China is clever with their CDMA-GSM combo networks and phones, Indonesia uses it like any other, eastern Europe warms up to the idea of looooong range (as they are using 450 MHz - that IS long range!) and in Korea the kids are also surfing over EV-DO. Oh and South America has also a bunch of CDMA networks which are "just mobile networks", again nobody cares for the standard as long as they can yak on it.

But GSM is where the money is, that's why everyone goes for it. VHS also did not beat Beta or V2000 because it was BETTER, only because it was CHEAPER. Same with CDMA-GSM. Ultimately i guess GSM will win - but certainly not because it's better.

Said one economist after the collapse of the U.S.S.R.: "Capitalism did not win - it's just left over". GSM will be "left over" too.

Best regards.....

Thanh (who loves CDMA)

<edit to add> Another thing that might play a role - certain government interference? As they more and more love to listen in on people's mobile phone calls for various "security" reasons... and the given fact that it is technically impossible to intercept or listen in on a CDMA call, while there is no problem to do so on GSM. Just an idea.

Edited February 27, 2008 by Thanh-BKK

[dave_boo]

And according to Wikipedia, there's at least 40 countries using CDMA2000. And seeing how the "huge" markets are invested in it (read: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, and the US), it may just have some staying power. I do find it interesting that none of the 'core' EU countries use it though.

Another thing that bothers me about this new system that Thailand seems so eager to go to is DRM. I'm not against DRM per se, but that indicates they want to start streaming media to devices. And how has the worked so far in Thailand? Not very well. Plus, what can you stream at 3.5+ mb/s that you can't stream at 700-800 kb/s? Granted, with the higher upload speeds being offered, the ISP could use a bit torrent type delivery system, thus freeing up some of their own resources, but that would be much more problematic for users. How many people do you know have significant storage space on their phones? Obviously this wouldn't affect those who use it to connect via laptop/desktop, but still, for the majority of users who do use a cell based technology, it would be a major hassle.

[monty]

And according to Wikipedia, there's at least 40 countries using CDMA2000. And seeing how the "huge" markets are invested in it (read: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, and the US), it may just have some staying power. I do find it interesting that none of the 'core' EU countries use it though.

Another thing that bothers me about this new system that Thailand seems so eager to go to is DRM. I'm not against DRM per se, but that indicates they want to start streaming media to devices. And how has the worked so far in Thailand? Not very well. Plus, what can you stream at 3.5+ mb/s that you can't stream at 700-800 kb/s? Granted, with the higher upload speeds being offered, the ISP could use a bit torrent type delivery system, thus freeing up some of their own resources, but that would be much more problematic for users. How many people do you know have significant storage space on their phones? Obviously this wouldn't affect those who use it to connect via laptop/desktop, but still, for the majority of users who do use a cell based technology, it would be a major hassle.

I see the biggest advantage of higher upload and lower latencies in the use of VOIP!

There are already a few phones with voip capability built in, but currently this only works when connected to some wifi point.

The mobile data systems, Edge, cdma ev-do are not capable to ensure quality VOIP connections at all times.

My resort has wifi everywhere, and I am amazed how many of my customers are using VOIP though handsets! (mainly PDA at the moment, but already had a few customers with Nokia's E60, E61 and I think an E70).

[lomatopo]

Hello

GIVE THEM NOKIA!! Nokia produces a ton of CDMA models, why don't we have any of them in Thailand???

Thanh

He he he. Good one. I don't think Nokia willingly produces a lot of CDMA handsets as their on-going legal battle(s) with Qualcomm continue.

For most CDMA networks the operator has exclusive rights to market hand-sets (locked/registered to network, no SIM, etc.). This model works when the operator can subsidize the cost of the hand-set by linking contracted ( 1 ~ 2 yr.) monthly post-paid revenue. This model does not work in markets dominated by pre-paid, nor does it allow for or encourage hand-set replacement. Consumers like to be free to trade-up without penalty, and they like to be free to change operators.

Forgetting about high-speed data for the moment, the market here is dominated by GSM and there is no way to differentiate CDMA service, as evidenced by Hutch's market performance.

High-speed mobile data, at speeds/costs greater than EDGE, has almost no mass-market potential here.

For anyone who travels CDMA really sucks; two or more hand-sets are a requirement. The best I ever did is with a Nokia 6151: GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 / UMTS 2100, so had service in Japan (Vodafone), U.S.A. (T-Mo) and every GSM country.

The beauty of a standard like GSM is that it doesn't have to be the best, in every technical regard. It just has to offer the right mix of openness, flexibility, price/cost and service to manufacturers, operators and consumers, so that all make some money and are happy with their handsets and services.

[mellow1]

That's all interesting technical stuff, but the bottom line is, no matter what system or company they use for internet they just can't get none of it working right. They don't care either, because no matter what, people will continue to pay for it, hoping that somehow they will get their shit together. Something that will never happen, cause theres no competition allowed, except the good old boys network, or government agencies.