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Google Pulls Support For CDMA Devices
An anonymous reader writes "Google has just made some interesting changes to their developer pages. As of today, all of the documentation, source code, and firmware images pertaining to CDMA Android devices (including the Verizon Galaxy Nexus) have been removed. A statement from Google explains that the proprietary software required to make these devices fully functional got in the way of Android's open source nature, so CDMA devices are no longer supported as developer hardware. What does this mean for the Galaxy Nexus, which is only available as CDMA in the U.S.?"
Sounds to me like the carriers and Google butted heads on some code, and this is Google putting the pressure on the carriers to open up parts of their software, but that is purely speculation on my part. I'm just curious how this is going to play out with Sprint's rollout of the LTE Google Nexus.
The GSM standards as originally developed were deliberately chosen to work on bands (900 MHz , IIRC) that in the US were assigned to the military. That is, to be initially incompatible and unusable in the US, so as to split the world into "US" and "rest", and give non-US developers a head start. It worked ...
Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist
I know that CDMA is an older standard, however, from what I remember it has always had better voice quality and tower transfers than GSM.
The one big advantage of GSM is the use of SIM cards, and that simultaneous voice and data were possible. CDMA also has better spectral efficiency than TDMA used by GSM. Check out Wikipedia's article on it and look at the efficiency of the latest CDMA vs GSM standard.
Don't act like the carriers stuck with CDMA to be dinosaurs. It actually was , at least for voice users, the better technology.
Actually, I work in a lab that programs, tests, and services phones on all four carriers. You are absolutely correct in your statement! Sprint and Verizon both were using CDMA for that reason. Verizon has now switched to LTE for quite a bit of it's network but Sprint is still using a combination of CDMA and WiMax. While AT&T and T-Mobile were using GSM but have now mostly switched to HSDPA(HSPA+) and LTE respectively.
What most people don't realize is that none of the technologies that are currently out can truly be called 4G! Unlike 3G, there is no specific standard for what is considered 4G service yet. The industry is saying that these specifications are in development, but right now 4G is more of a gimmick to get consumers to buy the latest and greatest thing! 2G service came out around 1995, 3G came out around 2005. Mobile infrastructures, in the USA at least, seem to be on a ten year cycle. With that said there most likely will not be a "4G standard" till around 2015. Sprint actually has the most right to call it's network 4G, not because of speed, but because it is the 4th generation of it's network.
"It's just another method of creating artificial business barriers in an increasingly small world. Like region encoding DVDs and the U.S. adopting ATSC for HD broadcasting instead of using DVB-T or ISDB."
You really don't know what you're talking about.
If you had ever served on a standards committee, you would know that competing standards are not
a plot to screw the consumer, but are the result of an inability of people from different countries to
agree on things.