On Jul 29, 2011, at 1:31 PM, Scott G. Lewis wrote: > > On Jul 29, 2011, at 1:07 PM, Scott G. Lewis wrote: >> >> > Unless your boss needs to be on Verizon, then he would use the GSM iPhone, >> >> You mean WCDMA iPhone. The original iPhone was the last GSM iPhone. Sure, >> the current iPhones support GSM when they have to fall back to it. > > I suspect the phrasing bit me on that. I meant unless he needed to be on > Verizon.... he would use a GSM iPhone.
The last GSM iPhone was the original iPhone. The 3G and on iPhones use W/CDMA (which is different than the CDMA variant used by Verizon, Sprint, et al). AKA "UMTS" W/CDMA uses a CDMA type signaling with a GSM type control/command layer. Since it uses the same sort of control/command layer as GSM it is an easier upgrade to GSM for 3G service than other 3G type services. But note that not all W/CDMA/UMTS carriers support GSM nor are all W/CDMA/UMTS carriers upgraded to it from GSM. Both NTT DoCoMo and SoftBank in Japan, and the Korean users, for example, did not have GSM networks in existence when they introduced their W/CDMA/UMTS networks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W-CDMA_(UMTS) > But that said, the non-CDMA iPhone is GSM... no? See above. The iPhone 3G/3GS/4 are commonly called GSM phones. They do support GSM as a fall back but normally run on W/CDMA/UMTS unless it is not available. They are dual mode phones. GSM does not allow concurrent voice and data. W/CDMA does, which is why the iPhone supports it. > Have I lost my mind, and has Wikipedia failed me to boot? > > In any event, as you mentioned, other than the CDMA iPhone for Verizon, it > works all over. Exactly. Which is why Apple sells it all over as well, including non GSM places like Korea and Japan. > What the roaming charges are... that's another story. :) true. We are going to Japan in a month and a half and which is why I am going to try this: http://applenberry.com/store/gevey-sim/gevey-ultra.html with a local SIM card my SIL is going to get for me there. That along with http://www.unlockit.co.nz/unlockit/ Will hopefully help me out on that front. I will be sticking my normal ATT sim in a NOKIA for the trip so that people in an emergency can call me directly. _______________________________________________ iPhone-talk mailing list [email protected] http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/iphone-talk
