Less Bars in More Places

A cell phone company's standard network determines the way in which cell phones communicate with their towers.  There are two dominant cell phone technologies at this time.  GSM is At&t's standard network, it standards for Global System for Mobile Communication.  The other one is CDMA, which I'll talk about more another time.  

The way GSM works is very different than other networks, making GSM phones incompatible with other networks' phones.  Basically GSM works through radio frequencies, also known as MHz. GSM phones require sim cards that can hold a person's address books and register with the network, relaying information.  GSM network frequency range is much wider than CDMA networks, thus making AT&T more cost efficient.  The ratio of AT&T's GSM cell sites to CDMA carriers is 1-2.  We"ll also go into that later.  The fact is that they have gotten by through limiting network funds to attempt to advance their cell sites.  At&t's collection of data and voice run through the same cell sites.  By all the information running through the same cell sites, one portion has to be prioritized, this being the data.  Prioritizing their information makes the GSM network run much slower with the end result being dropped voice calls.  

The amount of data that At&t has to handle by having exclusive rights to a Data Guzzler they need to find a way to have their network run smoother without having a 30% dropped call rate.