W-CDMA Rebrands As 3GSM

Realizing that most folks who don't closely follow the upgrade paths for the competing cellular network standards were getting confused by the fact that both the CDMA and the GSM upgrade path ended up in 3G technologies named CDMA, the GSM Association is rebranding W-CDMA as 3GSM (nice sleight of hand, there, right?). From a branding perspective, this probably makes sense. At the same time, though, the GSM Association is declaring that they've "won the war" over which standard will be dominant. I don't think anyone doubted the fact that there were many more subscribers in the TDMA/GSM/GPRS/EDGE/W-CDMA (um, 3GSM) path than in the competing CDMA path. This is really just a response to the fact that the CDMA upgrade path has been much easier and so the various higher levels from 1xRTT to EV-DO have started showing up much more quickly (and signed up many more subscribers) than the "equivalent" GSM versions. So, because they're feeling a bit behind in the race to the imaginary (and somewhat meaningless) finish line, the felt the need to promote just how widely they will be spread. Thanks for sharing. Also, I'm a bit confused by the claim that "99.7% of the world's population has adopted GSM". Not sure where they get this stat, but it's clearly misleading.

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