Brothers In Blog

Nearly everyone has a cell phone these days, but why isn’t everyone using a cell phone that requires the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) base service? Coverage in your area and service contracts obviously prevent most people from jumping on the GSM bandwagon, but if those aren’t your excuses for being stuck in the land of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) cell service, then read on.

Why is GSM so great?

• GSM cell service is a global standard: I believe that only in America do we have competing cell service technologies. Companies such as Sprint and Verizon rely on CDMA for providing cell service. While Cingular (now AT&T) and T-Mobile have opted to follow the rest of the world and offer GSM. So what’s the big deal? Simple. If you ever travel overseas with a GSM phone, it will work. You might end up paying outrageous fees for International service but at least you can take your phone and use it. Take a CDMA phone overseas and you might as well throw it in the trash because you won’t even “roam” with it.
• The Subscriber Identity Module (SIM): Inside every GSM phone is a little device, no bigger than a dime, called the SIM card. This little card is a removable item that contains your service subscription information along with the ability to hold your phonebook. You can take this card and slide it into any GSM phone, and provided the phone is unlocked or configured for your cell provider, you have a fully operational phone. No need to have your provider “enable” the phone for it to work. You simply cannot do this with a CDMA phone.

GSM lets me phone swap

Because your service subscription information is contained on the SIM card, you can have more than one phone. For example, I have a Blackberry 8700c. It’s a great device for remote connectivity back to work, but it stinks as just a phone. It’s awkward to hold to your ear. And while a BlueTooth ear piece makes it much better, there are still times when I forget the ear piece and have to hold it to my head. Aside from that issue, my employer has loaded the Blackberry with required software and forced many configuration settings (e.g. the keypad auto locks and requires a password…there is no way to disable this setting). Most of the time I just need a simple flip phone.

I went to the local Cingular store and picked up a Motorola V365, inserted my SIM card, and I had a fully functional cell phone that felt natural against my ear and didn’t force me to enter a password each time I wanted to use it. And, if I decide that today I need remote connectivity back to work, then I just pop the SIM card out of my Motorola V365 and back into my Blackberry. Finally, if I ever get tired of the Motorola V365, I can just buy another GSM phone. Also, I don’t need to buy my phone from a Cingular store. I can buy it from T-Mobile or search for a deal on eBay. All I need to do is unlock the phone if it’s locked to a provider other than Cingular. I can even start looking at phones only sold in Europe and Japan. My phone options start to open up with a GSM cell service.

I want a GSM phone but am stuck in a service contract

If the idea of phone swapping and a global cell service standard appeals to you, but you’re stuck in a 2 year service contract, there are ways to get out of your contract. I’ve heard that cell providers don’t like people using their free nights and weekend plans too much. If your plan includes that feature, then call someone (even your own land line will do) during this time and simply leave the connection active for as long as the battery lasts. Do this enough and your cell provider will be more than happy to terminate your contract; however, over at Wikihow there are some even better suggestions for getting out of your cell service contract before it’s over. So don’t stay stuck in a non-GSM service contract if you don’t want to — you have options.

Barry’s 2-Cents:

Very interesting. My company provides me with my cell phone, and for several months now they have been encouraging me to upgrade my phone to a model that will allow me to receive my emails off of our Exchange Server when I’m not in the office. Despite being in IT, I’ve never been much into the latest tech gadgets and I didn’t really see the need to have access to my emails while behind the windshield. Our company has also been having some customer service issues with Verizon and I didn’t want to lock us into another 2-year contract just by upgrading my phone. However, I did come across the XV6700 offered by Verizon that perked my interest.

Having Mobile Web 5.0, it could easily sync up with my Outlook profile using Microsoft’s Active Sync or via Verizon’s Wireless Sync. The latter would allow me to get me emails as soon as they hit my Inbox and also let me update anything else in Outlook with my phone while on the road. However, what really got my attention was it’s WiFi ability. With this phone, I could now sit in my favorite WiFi spot and not have to pull out my laptop if I just wanted to kill some time and surf the Web. Granted, the screen is small even in the landscape mode and requires a lot of screen scrolling to view everything, but if you just need to check on an Ebay auction or your personal webmail then it’s a good fit. I also added Shape Services’ IM+ so I can instant message over several IM platforms instead of being confined to MSN Messenger.

What closed the deal on this phone was that I could get a used one on Ebay from a reputable seller for much less than what Verizon was offering plus the Seller offered an extended 3-year warranty through Square Trade for only 10% of the closing auction price, which was much cheaper than Verizon’s monthly plan. So, now I have the phone I want with an extended warranty and no new contract with Verizon. If I ever switch carriers, I may not be able to use this phone with the new carrier but at least it’s far cheaper to resell it on Ebay and recoup some of my money than to pay early termination fees.

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