CellRev

All the core pages are up! The pages which explain mobile rights in its entirety, entitled “The Problem, Why Should You Care and How You Can Help” have now been uploaded and are available to the public!

As you may have noticed in my previous posts, I’ve been referring to different types of mobile technology using a variety of acronyms. These acronyms, like “HSDPA” and “UMTS” are mobile standards – unique systems which encompass everything from the end-user’s device to the hardware used by an operator to broadcast a radio signal at a transmission site. From the perspective of the mobile consumer, the standard you chose (based on what operator you chose) can have a huge impact on what you are able to do with your mobile device and service.

In the US there are 2 main mobile standards: GSM and CDMA. GSM stands for “Global System for Mobile” and is an open-access standard managed by the non-profit GSM Association. CDMA stands for “Code Devision Multiple Access” and is a proprietary standard owned and licensed by the American semiconductor corporation Qualcomm.

There are two major differences between these standards: First, GSM employs a small removable card called a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM), which allows the user to switch devices at their leisure, without the knowledge of the mobile operator. CDMA on the other hand, does not use any kind of removable identity module. CDMA devices are bound to a particular network by a hardware identification number (called an Electronic Subscriber Number, or ESN) and can only be used on another CDMA network if both the original and new operators cooperate (American CDMA operators DO NOT allow this or even admit that it is technologically possible). The second main difference between GSM and CDMA is that GSM is the international mobile standard, in use in over 200 counties by 3.7 billion people (thats over half of the world’s population). CDMA on the other hand is only used as a major technology in a handful of countries, resulting in its low usage by about 450 million people.

Because there are so many more GSM operators and users in the world than there are for CDMA, hardware manufacturers make a significantly larger variety of GSM based equipment than they do CDMA based. What this means for American consumers is that choosing a GSM operator and device over a CDMA equivalent will not only provide you with a much larger pool of devices to choose from, but also significantly cheaper devices and services, since the cost of products decreases with volume and fierce competition in an open-access environment like that of GSM. So in all, GSM is, at the present, the best choice from a mobile rights prospective for getting the most out of the American wireless industry.

Pictured below are two charts that I made detailing the various evolutionary sub-standards that make up GSM and CDMA, including the maximum data transfer rates possible with each evolution and their dates of introduction (or proposed introduction). Today the American GSM carriers (T-Mobile and AT&T) are operating all forms of TDMA based GSM as well as WCDMA based GSM up to HSUPA. CDMA carriers (Verizon and Sprint) are operating cdmaOne and CDMA2000 up to 1xEV-DO Revision B.

Click to enlarge.





Sources:

CDMA worldwide usage statistics:
CDMA Development Group

GSM worldwide usage statistics:
GSM Association

For the first time in over 20 years It looks like the US will be an early adopter of a new mobile network technology, Long Term Evolution (LTE), the 4th generation of GSM. Verizon, one of the big 4 operators in the US, and MetroPCS have started deploying LTE networks, and plan to have them launched in select markets (probably just a few big cities) by the end of 2009. The operators are among only a handful of companies that have started deploying LTE, the others all being from the Asian sector. This is shocking news for the whole American wireless industry, but more-so since both Verizon and MetroPCS use CDMA (a proprietary standard), and employ notoriously draconian business models, known as being the most consumer-unfriendly in the world. What this means for consumers is that in about 10 years, most of the major American mobile operators will be using the same standard (T-Mobile and AT&T have also declared that they will be adopting LTE). This doesn’t mean that there will be any improvement in the mobile rights given to consumers (as is with AT&T and T-Mobile today, who both use GSM based systems but are no more fair than CDMA operators) but it is a step in a positive direction, since in a county with one primary standard Americans will have a much bigger selection of devices to use with any given network.


Wireless Week: Analysis – Global Leadership for LTE In My Backyard

Wireless Week is reporting that trends are showing that smaller prepay-only mobile operators in US are increasing their user base’s enormously, while larger (and mostly postpay-only) operator’s businesses are stagnate. This isn’t surprising, given the pressures on consumers during a global recession like the one we are all experiencing now, but if the trend towards prepay mobile service continues, it could be the start of a new era in the American wireless industry. I’m excited about this since it means that more users are getting a taste of at least one mobile right: the freedom of carrier choice! I think as more American’s become accustomed to the concept of contract-free mobile service, pressure will begin to build on the big four (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint) and the FCC to create fairer services and policies.


Wireless Week: Prepaid Carriers Play David to Postpaid Goliaths

Well, its finally here, my capstone block! For the next 5 weeks I’ll be working exclusively on this website, with no other school work to distract me! I’ll be posting news stories (with my analysis of course) here on CellRev and possibly making some youtube videos, in addition to developing the site and forums further.

The website has been progressing well. I have successfully configured a common SQL database to be used by both the forum and main wordpress blog, allowing future users to use a single account to make comments on blog stories as well as forum topics. Now that the core structure of the website is essentially finished, I will be moving on the design and layout of the site. Over the next few weeks I will be trying different themes on the site, and modifying and creating new themes and elements. After I finalize a design, I will start promoting the site though various social media websites and publisher’s websites.

Welcome to CellRev.Com! This website, the process of its development, and the content which will evolve here is all part of my capstone project, a unique year long endeavor which all seniors at my high school undergo. For my capstone project I have decided to pursue the subjects of mobile rights and culture, both long time interests of mine, along with the wireless industry as a whole. For this first post I thought it would be appropriate to include my capstone proposal, which describes in detail my goals for cellrev.com and my reasons for creating it.

The Proposal (also available in PDF here):
———————————————————————
Copyright 2008 Mark A. Peck, All Rights Reserved

The CellRev Dot Com Project
Bringing Mobile Rights Awareness to America

For approximately the past 5 years I have been very interested in the field of wireless technology and consumer rights in personal telecommunications. This has led me to observe and learn a lot about the technical and social effects of wireless communication on people and societies around the world: To summarize, communication is power, and the advent of the mobile phone – now connecting over 4 billon people, half the world’s population, to each other – has transformed once isolated or powerless individuals, communities, and countries into significant world powers.
From my own research and observations, as well as Information I have gathered in reading respected industry publications and journals, it is clear to me that the quality of personal telecommunications services in the United States is extremely poor compared to the vast majority of the rest of the world. In addition, the vast majority of American mobile phone users are completely oblivious to the fact that they are living in a country with one of the most locked down, anticompetitive wireless industries in the world, and accept paying many times more for drastically inferior wireless services, when compared to those available in other countries. The ignorance of American wireless consumers, there oppression from information and rights by wireless operators, and the laughable quality and price of wireless services in America is greatly disturbing to me.
For my capstone I will build, launch, and promote a community based website called CellRev, an abbreviation for Cellular Revolution, located and hosted by me at cellrev.com. The mission of CellRev will be to educate and encourage discussion between American wireless consumers on how to make the most of the wireless services available in our country and how to pressure mobile operators to join the rest of the world in there quality and nature of service.
The website will have 2 main divisions, each based on a different content management system: a WordPress based blog and a BBpress based forum. The blog will serve as the homepage and core of CellRev.com, featuring referenced news stories on developments in the wireless industry, as well as weekly progress reports on the development of the site (which will serve as my capstone journal). The blog will also host general information about the site, such as its mission statement and links to other non-commercial wireless industry websites (such as the GSM Association). All posts on the blog will be open to comments and user response in the forum.
The second part of CellRev.com will be the forum, which will allow users to share ideas and advise by creating and participating in discussion topics. I will start off the forum by creating its layout and design, as well as a base of general discussion categories and a few broad topics to encourage user registration. Ultimately, the success of the forum will be up to how many users register and become active readers and contributors to the site.
Once I have fully launched CellRev I will need to promote it heavily in order to gain exposure to an audience of interested individuals, ideally resulting in the development of a regular readership. I will do this in many ways, including strategic submission of the website to popular social bookmarking websites like Digg and Delicious, search engine optimization of content, and possibly negotiating link sharing agreements with other popular blogs or podcasts.
In conclusion, I feel that the development and launch of CellRev.com would be an ideal capstone project for me, as it would allow me to combine my skills in web development, knowledge of the wireless industry, and my passion for mobile rights to create a useful and informative website to benefit the greater good.