• MOST READ

• LATEST NEWS

Now Apple has an iPhone which supports CDMA as well as GSM in one unit, it can expand its distribution network still further. The CDMA world may be shrinking slowly, but it includes many tier two carriers which have previously been excluded from the iPhone's kingdom - not just the big names like Verizon and KDDI. Apple has signed up the first of these, US regional operator C Spire (formerly Cellular South).

Although Apple introduced a CDMA iPhone last year, this was a specific model for Verizon and its bands, but now both main 3G networks are supported in the standard configuration (though the cut-price iPhone 4 remains GSM-only, which limits opportunities among CDMA carriers in emerging markets, where prepaid billing is the norm).

In the US, C Spire become the first lower tier, non-national cellco to get the Apple phone, paving the way for further deals with regional or MVNO players. The carrier, which recently rebranded itself and intensified its focus on smartphones, has beaten T-Mobile USA to get the iPhone, despite the fourth national cellco's avowed desire to add the handset to its portfolio.

The US is the biggest market for the iPhone, but also the most delicate balancing act for Apple's marketing department, and the most complex because of the operators' varying band plans. As ConnectedPlanet points out, the "myth of iPhone exclusivity is perpetuated in the US, while in many European markets, the iPhone is available through as many as five national operators". This double-speak explains why C Spire was not mentioned at the recent iPhone 4S launch - operator announcements are staggered in order to maximize the publicity for the premier partners and so maintain Apple's pricing power (so Verizon got its own CDMA iPhone for many months before Sprint was allowed to play).

The choice of bands is also a complicated one. While GSM/HSPA bands are uniform across many parts of the world, in the US the two main players, AT&T and T-Mobile, use different frequencies and only a few regional or rural carriers share AT&T's configuration (eg Cincinnati Bell). The CDMA net is wider, with far more tier two and three operators, many in the same PCS spectrum (though the situation gets more complicated in 700MHz and LTE).

However, three large players still have sufficiently off-center band plans to have put off Apple, apparently - TMo of course, but also Leap and MetroPCS, which have 2G CDMA in standard PCS, but have expanded using AWS. These carriers, being prepaid-only, also raise the problem of charging about $500 for a handset upfront. But there are many other regional players with standard CDMA networks in PCS and cellular - US Cellular is the largest, but there are also many MVNOs to consider.

Related Stories

COMMENTS

Posted by sulhpurious on Tuesday 25th October, 2011

If Apple were to do something totally remarkable, they'd make a truly 'world phone' available to tracfone, who have access to all the GSM, and the CDMA networks across the country. THAT would put them yet again in another league, and would highlight the fact that they don't want to be considered as the pawn piece of carrier monopolies.

Posted by sulhpurious on Tuesday 25th October, 2011

If Apple were to do something totally remarkable, they'd make a truly 'world phone' available to tracfone, who have access to all the GSM, and the CDMA networks across the country. THAT would put them yet again in another league, and would highlight the fact that they don't want to be considered as the pawn piece of carrier monopolies.

Carrier Broadband Performance: Africa & Middle East
Carriers are using mobile broadband as their weapon of choice in the fight against the commoditization of voice and falling ARPU. This...

Voice over LTE: Market Analysis and Forecasts
VoLTE offer unique advantages in lowering a carrier's voice infrastructure economics and promises to improve voice quality, device...