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We now have just as good of nationwide systems and just as much portability as the Europeans do, only our system is fundamentally better. GSM has many features which are marvelous, but they can eventually be grafted onto IS-95 and CDMA2K, because they're all implemented at high protocol levels or don't have anything to do with the RF link.

I agree that, technologically, CDMA is a superior standard. However, there are two aspects about GSM - which I absolutely love - that I think need to be implemented in some form in the US.

First, we need SMS. As the quote above states, it could be grafted onto CDMA. Well, it's about time to do it. When I'm abroad on my GSM phone, I can send a text message to anyone in the world...except for Americans. (T-Mobile customers excluded.)

Second, the SIM card/subscriber module in my belief is vastly superior to the phones issued by carriers in the US. If I like a GSM phone I see on the web, I can buy it. All I need to do is pop my SIM card in the back, and the phone is "mine." Additionally, I was travelling in Europe and my old Ericsson phone died. I was able to pop out the chip, place it in a new phone, and I was good to go. Definitely NOT that easy with the way things work in the US today. There is no "free market" for phones.

CDMA is technologically superior, but it could learn a couple of lessons from GSM.

When I'm abroad on my GSM phone, I can send a text message to anyone in the world...except for Americans. (T-Mobile customers excluded.)

And the odds are that both the MAP messaging which allows you to roam and send SMS is going through a system that I spent the last 3+ years of my life developing, testing, debugging, enhancing, supporting, etc.

I was also not aware that CDMA didn't do SMS. IS-41 certainly does, because when I wasn't working on the above... Come to think of it, I don't know anything about CDMA's application level protocols.

CDMA is technologically superior, but it could learn a couple of lessons from GSM.

I think you have to separate a couple of things out before making so wide and sweeping a proclamation as the above.

Firstly, the over-the-air RF modulation type (either time-division or spread spectrum in nature) are both "data agnostic". They don't care what they carry, whether it is voice or data.

Secondly, any form of SMS (short message servce) or unit to unit or e-mail 'paging' or alphanumeric messageing is possible with either type and *not* strictly tied to either.

The *big* differences are aspects of the RF 'signal': either a) time-division (time-sl;ot assigned) or 2) spread-spectrum (spreading-code assigned).

The data 'protocol' carried by either type RF modulation/signalling is the diffentiating factor in relation to SMS or any other 'service' (voice or data) that is 'carried'.

When I'm abroad on my GSM phone, I can send a text message to anyone in the world...except for Americans.

A crock.

Any AT&T Wireless customer can also receive e-mails from you - IF you are allowed to send 'messages' to a standard internet e-mail address ...