Verizon, Sprint Switching To GSM?

An executive for Siemens predicted this week that North American cellular operators that currently use CDMA technology, including Sprint and Verizon Wireless, will switch to GSM technology.

GSM is, by far, the most widely used technology in the world, having been deployed almost universally throughout Europe and large swaths of Asia. Christoph Catselitz, who is head of Siemens mobile networks business, told a Finnish publication that GSM could be in the future of North American operators, the Reuters news service reported Thursday.

"I would not bet on North America continuing with CDMA," Catselitz was reported as saying. "CDMA is losing market share globally as the new mobile phone users live mostly in the areas where GSM is the leading technology."

The primary advocate and a large patent holder of CDMA technology has been Qualcomm. However, Qualcomm's patents also extend advanced to 3G services used by GSM operators. Perhaps not surprisingly, Siemens is in the cellular network business, selling GSM-based infrastructure products to cellular operators.