3G Schadenfreude
More and more the tables seem to be turning in the battle for wireless dominance. It was Europe versus the world and particularly the US. Thanks to Europe’s adoption of GSM, it seemed to be the wireless promiseland. But as the world transitions to 3G, the European/GSM approach is having problems that some believe will ultimately put the US and Asia ahead of Europe. Former Qualcomm engineer Steven Den Beste has written up his opinion on why Europe is struggling. He goes into not only the technical merits of CDMA versus GSM, but also compares how the EU and FCC approached wireless standards. I admit that I’m a GSM snob. But I’m not attracted to the technology, CDMA is clearly better. What I am attracted to is lots of phone choices, great end user features, the convenience of SIM cards, international roaming, and the general momentum of the platform. When CDMA provides all of these, which I’m confident it can over time, I’ll switch.
