(keitai-l) Re: Dual mode phone PDC/GSM

From: Ben Hutchings <ben.hutchings_at_roundpoint.com>
Date: 01/26/01
Message-ID: <JGEMKINHOOBEFEDLJPKOMEEKCAAA.ben.hutchings@roundpoint.com>
Gustaf Rosell wrote:

> At 19:03 2001-01-26, you wrote:
> 
> >With a tri-band GSM phone I can get service in most countries that have
> >some cell-phone network, the most important exception being Japan.  A
> >dual-mode phone might correct that, but if I'm not mistaken this phone
> >only supports the 900 MHz GSM band.  That means it won't work in the US
> >(and maybe other countries if they only use the 1800 MHz band).  I
> >wonder what the target market is for this phone, and how large that is?
> 
> Quite large. Western Europe, large part of Eastern Europe, larger 
> parts of Asia with important locations like Hong Kong, Singapore,
> Australia and Malaysia. The most important exceptions are South Korea,
> South America and North America.

That's surely the area in which it can be used, not the target market.
I understood that it would only be sold to Japanese residents.

> So for a travelling Japanese user it is quite useful. It's a pity 
> that it's an inferior phone.

Well I was wondering how many Japanese travellers go mainly to those
places and not to the US.  (And isn't the PDC system usable outside
Japan, e.g. in Hong Kong?)

> I know that one of the manufacturers are working on a 6 band phone with a 
> target weight of 180 g. 3xGSM, 2xCDMA, 1xPDC.

That sounds impressive.

> Would be exciting if it 
> supported GPRS, packetOne, PDCP. The better alternative for most normal 
> travellers to a satellite phone. Only TDMA is missing, which is important 
> only in South America (but they seem to abandon it quickly now).

You are confused.  CDMA and TDMA are different techniques for multi-
plexing radio signals; they are not specific phone systems.  GSM uses
TDMA and I believe PDC uses CDMA.

-- 
I do not speak for Roundpoint; any opinions I express are my own.


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Received on Fri Jan 26 22:53:12 2001