I started out wondering why my T2e (Teracube 2e) has two SIM slots but does not work well with my old Verison third party clone SIM. The fact that I have to use four words to describe the SIM is a clue: “old Verison third party clone”. It’s old, that network provider is inexpensive and only uses part of Verisons towers.
BUT, I was really wondering about GSM vs CDMA on my phone. And that led me to this article stating that LTE is replacing both GSM and CDMA. https://techcitytimes.com/cdma-vs-gsm/
In simple terms, CDMA and GSM are like diesel and gasoline cars. GSM was a global standard and less expensive. CDMA was newer, faster, more secure and more expensive. But, LTE is like electric or hydrogen fuel cell cars. LTE is replacing CDMA and GSM. News to me, I heard about LTE and saw it all over but did not pay attention.
Each of these, GSM, CDMA and LTE are different ways used to make phone calls, text and everything else work on cell phones. As more people started using more cell phones in more ways, we had to come up with ways to pack more exchange of information into less space. Imagine talking someplace with someone by yourself. No problem. Then, other people come to the same place to talk. It’s a big enough place, you just get some distance to talk in your own little groups. More people show up, so many people that you have to talk louder to be heard. Some people use gestures to talk, other use signs. Smoke signals and passenger pigeon. Some people use use cans connected by strings, Someone invents headphones. Others use Morse code and flashing lights and handwritten letters, the postal system. All this going on as more and more people come to this place to talk with each other.
Same with cell phone networks, except we use cell phones to talk - voice, to text, send pictures, videos, live stream video chat, conference calls, send emails, listen to stored music, listen to the radio, watch TV and movies, play games, buy things from walk-in stores in other parts of the world, buy things in virtual stores like Amazon and Ebay, connect things to our phones like bank card readers, heart monitors, telescopes, microscopes, infrared heat cameras, chemical sensors… All done the same way we we talking to each other, by ourselves. Talk about a party line.
So, LTE is the newest way to allow all of us to do all of those things at the same time and everything kept separate, in it’s own place. LTE uses many, small towers all over the place, to send and receive instead of a few big towers far apart from each other.
But, LTE is somewhat new. It is not yet all there, working 100%. It’s like some of us when we wake up in the morning. It’s taking a while to get everything together, up and running. And, it is a group effort, not just one person waking up but many different individuals and groups - all the different cell phone service providers and their new LTE cell phone towers.
Feel free to correct me, you are not the first one to tell me I got it wrong.