The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

GSM doesn't always seem to be the best selection but it does have it's advantages.  For example, instead of being stuck loosing all of your contacts between phones, GSM uses SIM cards.  This enables cell phone users to carry their contacts from phone to phone, saving a lot of time and hassle of typing in each individual phone number again and again.  That is probably the most obvious reason why a user would like a GSM network, such as At&t.  I'm not going to lie, this is my top reason for why I've stayed with At&t for so long.  It's just nice being able to put a little chip into your new phone and there are all your contacts are, just like you left them.  Or for example, let's say your phone decides to go on a suicide mission.  You don't have to bury your contacts with your phone.  You simply move your SIM card into a working phone and then you're good.  Believe me I've had to do that one a couple times, it comes in handy.


Another reason might be the fact that it is a mature network.  It's been around since 1991 and since then has been able to travel worldwide to over 200 countries.  This makes it the most mature digital network still available today.  Other comparable networks didn't start until 1995 or early 2000's.  Ok so I guess this could be a good thing, but on the other hand, doesn't that mean that most of the cell towers are going to be out of date?  If a tower has really been up and working since 1991, it's most likely not going to have the most up-to-date equipment.


One big issue, especially for me and I'm pretty sure most others on a GSM network too, is the interference problems.  GSM networks can blocked by pretty much anything such as buildings, tunnels, electronics, even some building materials found in homes and buildings, such as metal, stucco, etc. 


One Major downfall of the GSM network is the service problem due to the execution of data and voice calls.  The cell sites are very limited in such that all data and voice calls are ran through the same sites.  This is a huge disadvantage due to the fact that data is always running at a very high speed.  Most data for GSM runs at 500 kilobits per second (kbps).  At&t for example, requires every iphone user to have a data plan.  The average iphone uses an average of 400MegaBites of data a month, that's over 30% more than the average smartphone user. By prioritizing data At&t towers overload, forcing so many GSM network dropped calls.  This amount of usage is why AT&T has admitted its towers cannot handle the iphone.  The GSM network runs very slow and cannot handle the amount of communication their customers want to consume because of all the data and calls are running through the same cell sites.

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.