Unholy row breaks out in US over CDMA, GSM phones

And the battle for which technology the Iraqis should use to call their families from the train with the mobile mantra: "Honey, I'm on the train" is taking a decidedly nationalistic stance, particularly on maven-site Silicon Investor.

Even the venerable Washington Post and the rather more venerable Rupert Goodwins of ZD Nethave joined in the act, with the former of these pillars of the US establishment saying that 190 million telephone users go for GSM, although it's decidedly dicky in the US and in South and Central America.

It's not much cop in Japan either, while South Korea is only allowed to use CDMAOne. North Korea - part of the axis of telecomms evil - is banned from using it by US of A.

But there's an even more unholy war broken out on the normally sedate Silicon Investor, which labels the INQUIRER, the BBC and even American journalists like the the Los Angeles Times, and Theresa Orlowski, as being very very biased against Congressman Issa, Qualcomm and CDMA - which some geezer called Jim Mullens describes as a "home grown technology".

Apparently we're all in the GSM lobby -- which would be great. Care to pass us some €urodosh, the GSM Association?

And was CDMA home grown? And if it is was, was that with the Cottingley Fairies at the end of the garden, or perhaps with the George Russell lupins, which of course need good drainage, just like the fairies do, and home grown tobacco, natch.

He describes us and the US journo nutters as expressing something which he calls the GSM "party line" to a "tee". We remember party lines here at the INQ. In the old days you'd pick up your POTS phone and someone across the road would be nattering to their friends. Unless you were of the twitching curtain persuasion, you'd put the phone down. And hope your nosy neighbours did a similar thing when you were chatting to Auntie Maud about how well geraniums would fare in the frost.

Jim says he's written to some of those in the GSM lobby to visit his views on them. Thankfully, neither Tony Dennis nor Eva Glass have had missives from Jim yet. Thanks Jim.

Here in Blighty we can buy dual band phones so that when we visit the USA, our GSM phones accept the local standards. That isn't true of the States. Bring your mobile phone here and you may as well not, by and large. As a reader points out, the US Siemens dual phone from AT&T wireless is an exception. Not only does it work OK in the USA in GSM-enabled cities, but works in CDMA towns too and also functions in Paris and London as well, both GSM villes.

The Washington Post guide to mobile phones points out that 190 million people use removable SIM cards, but we think this is a plus, rather than a minus. You can remove it from your lovely little Sony Ericsson phone and plug it into your $2 million Sendo very easily.

See Also
Congressman says Iraq should have American cell phones
Europe set to launch rival to GPS
The Mother of all Silicon Investor wars
Washington Post useful guide to mobile phones
ZD Net outpost in UK colony talks about war, again