With the advantages of LTE, and perhaps VoLTE, or Voice Over LTE, it might make more sense for the carrier to switch over completely. In short, Verizon may no longer use CDMA technology for its smartphones as early as 2014. You still won't enjoy the benefits of swapping devices easily or changing carriers like you would with GSM technology. This still doesn't change the fact that your device is chained to Verizon. What does that mean for you? When you're traveling overseas, you can use prepaid SIM cards in your Verizon smartphone as long as it is SIM unlocked. Moreover, it now allows you to make phone calls and use data on the same handset.Īnother advantage of Verizon's 4G LTE devices is that they support the use of SIM cards, and some Verizon devices have their SIM cards unlocked. LTE, in an unscientific and completely subjective experience, is a gazillion times faster than Verizon's 3G EV-DO technology. A marketing scheme that worked, sadly, and even forced the ITU, or International Telecommunications Union, to stretch its rules on what is and isn't 4G. LTE, which stands for Long Term Evolution, is what most consider to be "real" 4G, versus the speedier 3G that T-Mobile and AT&T tried to pawn off as legitimate 4G. When 4G LTE made its way to the U.S., it was great news for Verizon subscribers. If you break or lose your device, for example, you're probably going to have to have a headache getting a new one to use because there's a chance you'll have to pay full retail price for the device (unless you have insurance or some other deal worked out). On Verizon, your phone has to be compatible with the carrier's network. With unlocked GSM devices, you can hop back and forth between AT&T and T-Mobile freely, or any other GSM carrier in the world - prepaid or post-paid. To this day, you can't just go out and buy an unlocked device and expect to use it immediately on Verizon, if at all. The biggest difference for consumers is the inability to easily swap phones on Verizon's CDMA network. The majority of the rest of the world was using GSM technology, and the countries and regions that used CDMA weren't always compatible with Verizon's devices. However, with new smartphones and monster batteries inside them, it's not as big an issue anymore.Īnother concern is that Verizon phones weren't that great for traveling abroad. Historically, Verizon CDMA devices didn't have the same battery life as GSM devices on AT&T or T-Mobile. GSMĪs a consumer, there are just a few things you need to be concerned with when it comes to the big differences between CDMA and GSM devices. Once 3G came around, Verizon's CDMA network used EV-DO, which carried the disadvantage of being limited to data or voice calls only - never both. It was also more powerful and flexible than GSM at the time, so it made sense for Verizon and Sprint to jump on it.
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