CDMA Telephony: Your Urban Companion
by Utibe Uko2007-02-05 09:41:44 | Viewed 5730 times
It is not uncommon knowledge that the average Nigerian telephone service subscriber is quite ignorant about products and services offered by Fixed Wireless/CDMA telephony. Outside the major urban centers, knowledge about Fixed Wireless/CDMA which is popularly referred to as landline hardly transcends tepid memories of the epileptic and inefficient services offered by Nitel. Nigeria's contemporary telephone subscriber market is dominated by the GSM platform users who dwarf the subscribers of the Fixed Wireless operators who deploy the CDMA platform in the delivery of their services.
The reason for this not far fetched from a marketing communication point of view. The GSM service providers have invested heavily and creatively in marketing communication, creating, building and sustaining brand awareness and recall since they made their entry into the Nigerian market five years ago. The question is; in the face of the bombardment of the mind and psyche of the consumer with audio, audio/visual materials via marketing communication, is the Nigerian subscriber receiving value for money for his/her heavy consumption of GSM services. Before I answer the question, it is expedient to examine the unidentical twin telephony platforms of CDMA and GSM.
CDMA: stands for Code Division Multiple Access. Both data and voice are separated from signals using codes and then transmitted using a wide frequency range. Because of this, there are more space left for data transfer (this was one of the reasons why CDMA is the preferred technology for the 3G generation, which is broadband access and the use of big multimedia messages). Multiple calls can then be overlaid on top of one another across the entire channel, with each assigned its own sequence code's? to keep the signal distinct. CDMA offers more efficient use of an analog transmission because it allows greater frequency reuse, as well as increasing battery life, improving the rate of dropped calls, and offering far greater security than GSM/TDMA. For this reason CDMA has strong support from experts who favor widespread development of CDMA networks across the globe.
GSM: stands for Global System Mobile. Even though it is sold as "the latest technology" in several countries, this technology is older than CDMA (and also TDMA). But keep in mind that this doesn't mean that GSM is inferior or worse than CDMA. GSM allows for eight simultaneous calls on the same radio frequency and uses narrowband? TDMA, the technology that enables digital transmissions between a mobile phone and a base station. With TDMA the frequency band is divided into multiple channels which are then stacked together into a single stream, hence the term narrowband. This technology allows several callers to share the same channel at the same time.
GSM operators claim their platform is better "because it uses a SIM chip, it is the most used technology worldwide, it is more secure and it is more advanced". On the other corner, CDMA aficionados say CDMA is better "because it is the 3G generation chosen technology and GSM will migrate to CDMA since CDMA is more advanced. In the beginning, GSM was in fact superior. It had more services and allowed more data transfer. But CDMA, facing the advantages of the competitor standard, soon developed and delivered the same features found on GSM. Today, it is not logical to claim that GSM services are better than CDMA. Multimedia messages, video, high-speed Internet access, digital camera and even PDA function are some of the features found on both technologies.
Even the GSM SIM card advantage, that allows you to change your cell phone and keep your phone list, is being replaced by some CDMA operators with a service that allows you to store your phone book on the operator's database, allowing you to recover your phone book even if your cell phone is stolen (which is not possible with GSM, since if your cell phone is stolen, your SIM card will be stolen together). Recently a new accessory called SIM backup was released, which allows the subscriber to backup the data stored in the SIM card. Since the development of CDMA technology there has been many new releases and platforms. The original CDMA is now referred to as CDMA's. Several different variants of CDMA technology have been developed continuously improving quality and data transfer speeds.
Let's go back to the issue that bothers the Nigerian consumer; the cost of making calls. At a call rate of N20 per minute to GSM networks and approximately N6.50 to other landlines, CDMA leaves the GSM platform far behind in terms of being friendly to the consumers pocket.
Opposition to Fixed Wireless/CDMA will quickly point out the poor coverage area for CDMA operator, the inability of a Fixed Wireless subscriber to use his phone outside the specific urban centers where the service is obtainable. Why should I use a service that costs me twice as much when I can get a service that costs not only less but a service which quality of service is better in terms of voice clarity and number of dropped calls.
The advantages of Fixed Wireless/CDMA make it an ideal companion for the cost-conscious urban center dweller who spends ninety five percent of a year in these urban centers. For the Nigerian telephony subscriber, the lifestyle of keeping two GSM services phones moves into the realm of waste when he can substitute one of his GSM phones for a Fixed Wireless/CDMA phone that reduces his call costs and offers telephony with a better quality in the bargain.
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The author, Utibe Uko, is Head, Corporate Communications and Brands, Reltelwireless.
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