How many calls per Mhz can your carrier do?
Phone calls cost money. As consumers, we have the option to pay as you go, pay for a set amount of minutes per month, or choose an unlimited amount of minutes per month. But the amount of calls that the cell company can process is a static amount and is expensive and costs the same no matter which phone plan a user opts for. More phones calls for a set amount of space raises the cost of handling phone calls.
The amount of calls that they can process per chunk of their finite spectrum allocated to them by the FCC is important. The more calls they can handle with less resources frees up space for more bandwidth-intensive applications like internet access. Higher speeds and more bandwidth are things that we all can enjoy.
For U.S. Carriers that use GSM as their basis of cellular communication (AT&T and T-Mobile), the move to 4G via LTE is especially important. Besides the speed gains (as high as 100 Mbps for download) and advertising advantage versus 3G competitors, LTE will allow its users (Verizon Wireless (who is making the switch from CDMA-based to GSM-based technologies for 4G), AT&T, and T-Mobile in the U.S.) to package more mobile phone calls per 1 Mhz of space then ever was possible before.
In a perfect and simplified world, basic GSM (2.5G) technology can move between 4 and 8 calls per 1 Mhz. Not bad in our perfect simplified world. Moving up to UMTS (3G) nets 12 calls per Mhz while HSPA (3.5G) can get 24 calls per Mhz. That is all good and dandy, but what about the 4G bringer, LTE? Anywhere from 50 to 80 calls per Mhz.
As you can see, LTE is going to be a major upgrade for both carriers and consumers as more calls per Mhz means lower costs for carriers which will (hopefully) translate to lower bills and higher speeds for consumers. For those who would like to get down and dirty with the details, please go to the source link for a more in-depth explanation into how these numbers were figured out.
Source- MobileSociety.com
© 2009, BigDiesel07. All rights reserved.
Why didn’t you address the differences between GSM and CDMA. CDMA is far superior to GSM. That is why the call and data quality is superior on the CDMA networks even though ATT makes its claim as the fastest 3G network in the country.
Actually, ATT very specifically claims to be the fastest in the “world”. In the US they are actually pretty crap.
Isn’t LTE W-CDMA?
@tpeazy Point taken. I did not have the CDMA information readily available at the time of the writing, but it will be something I will look into.
@j_j No, it is not.. W-CDMA is a variant of CDMA2000, which is the technology that Verizon and Sprint currently use for their 3G. LTE is 4G
nice article. glad the noobs can get educated.
btw, quality difference of cdma and gsm gets down to arrangement and synchronization on a packet level. cdma still relies on 1x for voice because that protocol has the greatest synchronization qualities. evdo and other 3g squeeze more data into the packets at the price of quality (# of errors), but data doesn’t mind a few (mili)second delay for error correction.
LTE and WiMax will free up more space on the existing cells as well as provide enough throughput to likely run voice over it, although proximity to the tower and congestion will still be an issue.
Well it would be 4 calls per mhz, for any carrier unless they are using narrowband. Which I don’t think they are since that more applies to public safety side of things and Nextel than it does voice calls.
Wow 100MBPS max on LTE?