CDMA: The “Betamax” of Wireless

By Mark Evans | Published: January 12, 2008

You have to love a Toronto Star story today that describes Telus’ contemplation of moving from CDMA to GSM as “the wireless equivalent of moving from Betamax to VHS”.

I’ll give the reporter, Chris Sorensen, points for creativity but it’s a bit of a stretch given Betamax lasted about a decade before pretty much disappearing while CDMA is still alive and kicking, although it’s losing a lot of ground to GSM. If Telus does decide to pull the trigger on GSM, I wonder how long it will take Bell Canada to follow suit?

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  • Rembrandt

    Yes..and what is your point?

  • Apple

    Mark Evans, what's wrong with your blog?
    Recent comments are not updating the list!
    I don't see the groups as you had before, example posts sorted by analysts updates…
    How to look for an old post on your blog? May you introduce your new blog a little bit?

  • http://www.allaboutnortel.com Mark Evans

    Apple,

    Not sure what you mean by “comments are not updating the list”. I recently switched over to a new comment system called Disqus, which allows for threaded comments. I just added my categories so you can look for old posts that way or by using the search box.

  • Nortel Watcher

    If you look at the 'Recent Comments' sidebar on the right, none of the postings since the adoption of Disqus are listed there. You have to hunt through the individual items to find updates. Not good. Note to self: don't invest in Disqus.

  • Anonymous

    I also preferred the old system where the “recent comments” box informed me about, well, recent comments. With the new system there's no way to tell where to look for comments that have been posted since I last visited.

  • http://www.dsam.ca Duncan

    In all fairness, he might have been using the CDMA/Betamax analogy to compare market positions rather than ultimate success or failure. In its early days CDMA was positioned as technologically superior, whereas GSM was the sort of thing people living in trailer homes might use (I am kidding.)

    Over time, GSM narrowed the technology gap enormously and was able to translate its scale, user base and penetration into a time to market and price advantage that is hurting CDMA. The dynamics between VHS and Betamax weren't identical — but there certainly are a number of similarities.

  • http://www.allaboutnortel.com Mark Evans

    Okay, I understand now. I'll look into it. It may be that the old way was a better way, and if that's the case, I'll go back to the earlier system.

    cheers, Mark

  • many

    Mark, what I miss is the ability to quickly check where new comments have been made. As it stands now you have to browse all subjects and I am just noot that invested :)

  • Nortel Watcher

    How about if we update this post to read: “CDMA: The HD-DVD of HD”.

    CDMA has some technical advantages, but there are two fundamental weaknesses that turned me off it and onto GSM from the beginning: 1) No international roaming; 2) No SIM card support. I know you can now roam to some limited locations with CDMA, but it's too little, too late.

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