DC,
The phones are roaming on the GSM networks for voice,
and GPRS for data where available, and the SMS bearer
channel for SMS where GPRS is not available.
I don't speak for the whole company, but I believe
that having GSM/GPRS was a decision taken because it
differentiates us from our competitors, who are
basically incompatible. Because many Vodafone
operators recently released 3G infrastructures, though
they are only using them for data at this point, I
doubt that it will be necessary to continue with dual
mode forever, though as we have seen in the past, they
are likely to be necessary longer than seems
reasonable.
I am not a network engineer, but I believe that the
PDC network is completely incompatible with WCDMA. I
am not sure about the GSM network, but I at one point
heard that it should be possible to upgrade it to
WCDMA. I am a little skeptical, though, and I believe
that the GSM operators who have done WCDMA rollouts
have done so using new infrastructures.
Hope this helped.
Best,
Nik Frengle
--- dc <dc@wm.namco.co.jp> wrote:
> question -
>
> What network are the vodafone 3G phones (V801/SH801)
> using overseas?
>
> I guess in japan they are on Wcdma (when the little
> 3G icon lights up)
> and 2.5G packet/"PDC" otherwise.
>
> The 801 series seem to roam overseas really well,
> but are they on GPRS
> or WCDMA?
> I didn't think the 3G networks were that built up in
> europe, but the
> signal has seemed pretty good.
[ excessive quoting removed by moderator ]
=====
Nik Frengle
Mobile: +81-80-3416-3090
Received on Tue Apr 13 14:07:49 2004