Evdo Is Better Than Wcdma, Hsdpa

[HetalDP 947]

Recently i have visited so many Website and concluded that EVDO is Better in many Respect

Following the Operator Data in USA

Cities Cover with 3gNetworks

Sprint: 155+ (EVDO Network) (CDMA Camp)

Verizon: 95+ (EVDO Network) (CDMA Camp)

Cingular: 16+ (WCMDA + HSDPA) (GSM Camp)

Alltel: 11+ (EVDO Network) (CDMA Camp)

Here Cingular(Newly AT&T) is the Biggest Operator in USA with 5.5 Crore User on GSM Technology but lagging far Behind of Sprint which have 4.9 Crore Customer and Verizon have 5.1 Crore CUstomers

In USA 3G i provided by Sprint and Verzion from last 1.5 Years and Capture Biggest broadband over Air and 3G Market of USA.

WCDMA is not Introduced in India but it is already a Dead Technology World Wide and HSDPA is there but to Complex to Implement into GSM as it uses 2.1 Ghz verson GSM 900 and 1800 in India making 3G Enabled Aligned Different will be Costly Solution for them this directly Visible by Seeing the Data on Cingular in USA in Contrast CDMA to EVDO is Evlotion is very Easy you can use same Frquency like 800 and 1900 which alread operates 1x and Use Upgrae the tower by 1.25 Mhz Step by Step so One by one Reducing old 1.25 1xRTT Card and replacing it with 1.25 EVDO Card in Phased manner and Eventually you can Convrt whole Tower into EVDO capable or 100% EVDO.

In GSM you have to align a whole new Tower whole new RF Devices for 2.1 Ghz and you know major GSM tower in Country is Hooked up with RF Backend rather than Fiber Optical only BSNL have Major Tower Hooked up with Fiber.

So CDMA User will taste EVDO kind of thing earlier and in Better Condition than GSM users will. Hurray now keep hope on Reliance that They FInalise so thing on EVDO or WCDMA and give us the 3G Access

[HetalDP 947]

Sprint

EVDO Coverage claimed: 164m+ population reported. As of Feb, Sprint claims 220 markets but it's really only 155+ contiguous distinct markets with significant coverage. Sprint plans to rollout to 200m+ pops by end of 2006 and nearly entire voice network by end of 2007. Sprint has all 1900mhz towers and appears to have more EVDO capacity. Click here for EVDO Coverage Map. Orange is current EVDO coverage, Yellow is future (by end of 2006 to early 2007).

Verizon

EVDO Coverage claimed: 153m+ population reported . As of Feb, Verizon claims 180+ markets but it's really only 95+ contiguous distinct markets. Verizon has future markets now showing on maps but unknown when they target to complete. Verizon has a mix of 800/1900mhz towers. For exclusive 800mhz markets that do have EVDO, performances avgs may be lower as there is likely not as much capacity for EVDO in 800mhz markets. If considering Verizon EVDO, may want to check if 1900mhz towers are in your area. Click here for EVDO Coverage Map - select Vcast.

Cingular

HSDPA Coverage claimed: Under 20 major markets. Initial plans were to expand to 100 markets by end of 2006 but lately they've been saying 'most major markets' for 2006. Some are also apparently only getting slower UMTS, not HSDPA. UMTS/HSDPA is not GSM based and therefore is a significant, more costly upgrade for cellsites. Will be interesting to see what % of network becomes HSDPA in a couple years. PC World Review suggests the coverage maps are less than honest.

3G Performance Test

Performance measurements are in bits, not bytes.

1000Kbits/sec = ~125KBytes/sec

600Kbits/sec = ~75KBytes/sec

As of Sept 29...

Sprint

Download Performance

Entries: 147

Average: 622Kbps

Median: 557Kbps

Peak: 1553Kbps (Rev A tests omitted)

>1Mbps: 17% of tests

>600Kbps: 43%

<400Kbps: 24%

Std Deviation: 314Kbps

Upld Avg: 72Kbps

Verizon

Download Performance

Entries: 126

Average: 534Kbps

Median: 467Kbps

Peak: 1682Kbps (Rev A tests omitted)

>1Mbps: 9% of tests

>600Kbps: 37%

<400Kbps: 40%

Std Deviation: 312Kbps

Upld Avg: 92Kbps

Cingular HSDPA

Seeking comprehensive source for real-world user tests. Some users on HoFo are reporting 600k-1Mbps. PC World Review suggests not up to par with EVDO. Another article. HSDPA in some cases may have better latency than EVDO Rev 0 but not better than EVDO Rev A coming next year.

________________4.0 Terms of Service________________

Sprint

EVDO Terms of Service: No specific restrictions other than unlawful abuse. Sprint actually promotes streaming video and online game use. Server-services, such as running a web server, are not allowed. Sprint does state the right to cancel service for any reasons but there are no known sources of Sprint sending letters for TOS violation if having the proper EVDO account.

Verizon

EVDO Terms of Service: Not allowed... Legal downloading or streaming music/movies/radio, VoIP, online games, webcams, among other things are "officially" not allowed. Verizon has sent letters to some users for TOS violation with specific dates mentioned for cancelling service. Their appears to be a soft limit of about 5GB-10GB/month, which is still quite a bit, but might trigger a cancellation notice.

Cingular

HSDPA Terms of Service: Appears less restrictive than Verizon but more restrictive than Sprint. Details here.

________________5.0 Rates________________

Sprint

EVDO Rates:

- Laptop/USB cards $60/month w2yr contract, no contract $80/month. No Sprint voice acct needed for either!

- PowerVision phones start at $15/month, includes unlimited data/browsing within phone (and PDA phones).

- USB or Bluetooth tethering to laptop officially available on all PowerVision phones with two plan options...

--- $25/month for 40MB with per KB charge that caps to $70/month OR

--- $40/month unlimited flat charge with 2yr contract, $50/month 1yr contract

- Some PowerVision phones can be hacked to tether on the $15/month account (w/risk of terms of service violation or worse).

- Can EVDO roam in Canada and Mexico (additional charge)

- Will EVDO/1xRTT roam on Alltel in late 2006 at no charge. Alltel EVDO/1xRTT maps

- Offers three nextgen RevA cards now and more coming in Oct/Nov

Verizon

EVDO Rates:

- Laptop cards $60/month w2yr contract otherwise $80/month. The $60/month requires a cell phone account, the $80 does not.

- VCast phones start at $15/month but unlimited data within a PDA phone is $45/month.

- USB tethering to laptop officially available on new BlackBerry EVDO phone and some smartphone phones - $45/month for unlimited data + $15/month to tether = $60/month.

- Vcast and Razr phones apparently have tethering capability for total of $60/month.

- Details. on tethering plans.

- Can data roam 1xRTT on some domestic partners at no charge

- No specific details on nextgen RevA plans, no product offerings yet

Cingular

HSDPA Rates:

For data cards, appears to be $60/month with 2yr contract/voice plan otherwise $80/month. Appears to be $45-$50/month for in-phone use on PDAs and BlackBerries. Not clear on tethering details. Please post if you find more details.

________________6.0 Summary and Key Points ________________

Sprint

Key Points:

- More markets have EVDO, especially <1.5 million; large expansion plan to nearly 100% of network by 2007

- Publicized nextgen RevA plans (40m pops end of 2006, nearly 100% network by end of 2007)

- Only carrier now selling nextgen RevA cards

- Avg performance currently a little higher

- No voice account needed for the $60/month rate

- Much lower priced EVDO USB/Bluetooth phone tethering and in-phone data on PDAs

- Almost entirely unrestricted Terms of Service (unlimited means unlimited) but using server-side services not allowed, such as a web server

- Has USB Rev 0 and Rev A PC cards available while Verizon does not

- EVDO built in some Sony/Panasonic Toughbooks

- Will roam EVDO/1xRTT on Alltel (Q4 2006) at no charge, Canada and Mexico EVDO roaming available today

- Sprint's first level support is often poor, go direct to Tier 2 data group: 1.866.818.1944 (long wait)

- Sprint is blocking some incoming ports

- No Mac Support provided directly from Sprint. Apple does support some older Sprint cards - but cards must be activated in PC and must be inserted in PC to update PRL or do firmware upgrades.

Verizon

Key Points:

- Can roam slower 1xRTT data on some partners today

- May have more DO coverage on outskirts of some metro areas

- Has Rev0 ExpressCard format while Sprint does not (Novatel V640 )

- Official Mac support on all their cards, including MacBook Pro with ExpressCard

- EVDO built in some IBM/HP/Dell laptops

- Call-in customer support generally considered better

- Was first to rollout EVDO Rev0

- Has much higher user/tower ratio than other carriers, which can impact performance

- Significantly more restrictive terms of service with cancellation notices sent to heavy use (appears to be at around 5-10GB/month usage)

- Challenge to rollout >75% network and have effective capacity... due to 800mhz site user/tower ratio issues for EVDO

- No specific nextgen RevA plans or product releases yet

Cingular

Key Points:

- Just getting started with <20 US markets, Most major markets planned by end of 2006

- HSDPA phones coming will do voice/data simultaneously

- HSDPA has more global presence, but global roaming very expensive

- HSDPA to be built in some IBM/Dell laptops

- Switching between slower Edge and UMTS/HSDPA is not seamless

- Challenge to rollout to 100% network as 44,000+ sites require major upgrade

__________________8.0 Futures___________________

Verizon and Sprint plan Rev A upgrades to EVDO sometime in late 2006 to 2007. Rev 0 is what is currently available today. Sprint plans to rollout RevA to 10+ markets and 40m population by end of 2006 and the rest of DO network by end of 2007. Verizon has not mentioned detailed plans for RevA but does intend to rollout to some areas by next year.

Download theoretical peaks

Rev0 - 2.4Mbps (400-700Kbps avg)

RevA - 3.1Mbps (500-800Kbps avg)

Upload theoretical peaks

Rev0 - 144Kbps (50-100Kbps avg)

RevA - 1.8Mbps (300-600Kbps avg)

Latency (lower is better)

Rev0 - 150ms-400ms or higher

RevA - as low as 50ms in best cases

HSDPA - 120ms-400ms or higher (Worst Response Time, Video and Video Confereing, Skype Just Breaks)

[Arun 795]

yes, EV-DO is much better, I just hope Reliance will launch it very soon atleast in the major cities.

great research done there Hetal !

[petar 15]

CDMA is better in using optimal bandwith for data transfer.

[kshah 452]

I think 3G or EVDO is yet too far for India. Due to reasons like, WiMax/wifi is cheaper alternate, still 90% of mobile users do not use data services and data services do not yield good revenue etc. Ofcourse CDMA is way better than GSM for data. Even WCDMA or HSDPA. CDMA too is HSD.

Edited July 9, 2007 by kshah

[reliancenokia2007 2]

EVDO is just an extension of CDMA so operators can just combine existing spectrum slots and offer higher bandwidth on their already invested networks.

reliance should've offered EVDO long time back. I dont know why they waited so long.

wimax on other hand is based on ofdm principle and requires a totally different rf end. its more interference resistant than CDMA. superb for dense urban environments. ideally 70Mbps up and down. Practically 10Mbps at 10km.

with an established base reliance should've more advantage than tata wimax.

We are getting there gradually...

[petar 15]

EV-DO is on my wish list..

Good speeds & also good reach with reliance expanding thier coverage nation wide to smaller towns n cities.

[Karma_prisoner 0]

Well whichever it is EVDO or WCDMA or HSDPA

We as consumer don't really care for the technology

all we care is for good connectivity, speed and cost

if we get wireless broadband up and running at affordable cost with good speed and nation wide grid that is enough

let it it be EVDO, WCDMA, Wifi, WiMax or anything else

Who cares as long as it works fine!

Edited July 20, 2007 by Karma_prisoner

[reliancenokia2007 2]

http://www.the-inquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41297

CDG claims CDMA2000 winning 3G war.

Mobile Broadband EVDO cited as reason for increased revenues...

Looking forward to attractive EVDO reliance handsets...