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- Cell Phones Digital and Analog
- Within the cellular industry, there
are two primary technologies available to wireless users: analog and digital, and your preference for one or the
other depends on where you'll want to do the majority of your calling.
Consider whether you want
analog or digital service.
- Digital
- Clearer and more secure than analog
? It is necessary for features like wireless Internet and e-mail. But coverage can be spotty. The older analog
network, which transmits sounds like radio waves, has the most extensive coverage, especially in rural areas.
- Tip
- If you want digital service, make
sure your cellular company has a roaming agreement that lets your phone work on an analog system when you are outside
digital range. But be aware. Roaming can be expensive, and it requires a dual mode phone.
Although dropping out of popularity, the analog standard, otherwise referred to as AMPS or NAMPS, offers coverage
for over 80% of the U.S., including many rural areas not covered by digital technology.
Analog offers the advantage of low pricing and a large calling area. Low sound quality and reduced privacy or security
are disadvantages to this technology.
The digital standard, which encompasses the CDMA, TDMA and GSM platforms, allows for more callers to concurrently
occupy space on each of a service provider's cells, making it the superior choice for highly populated or metropolitan
areas.
Each platform has its good and not so good qualities, ranging from the reduced background noise and earlier WAP
adoption of CDMA phones, to the clearer sound and security protection of TDMA phones, to the near global roaming
ability that accompanies GSM phones. PCS, the new kid on the block, is a marketing term for a CDMA digital network.
Disadvantages to digital systems are their lack of unified technology and a small, metropolitan focused calling
area.
If you go to the country occasionally, you will not have coverage at all if your phone is digital only.
Remote locations are not covered by the digital network, but using a digital & analog phone makes it possible
to automatically switch to analog when digital service is not available for a better overall coverage.
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