Hi Micro,
With all due respect you are incorrect. While you are correct about the designed incompatibility of handests to reduce churn BOTH GSM and CDMA use the same frequency bands and are 3G only. Take the 1900MHz band for example. I am going to oversimplify this for attempted brevity. The 1900MHz band is split up into small groupings of bands of the 1900 frequency and the GMS camp uses part, lets say 1900-1949MHz and the CDMA camp uses the 1950-1999MHz bands yet they BOTH use the 1900 band as well as the 800, 1800 and 2100MHz bands. They also use MIMO which means multiple input multiple output which can blend frequency bands and one frequency band can be used to send data and one band can receive information simultaneously and algorithms decode and reassemble them so you can understand or see what was transmitted.
Qualcomm was behind CDMA and attempted to create a monopoly with their CDMA patent portfolio. Thank GOD for GSM.
MOST NEW phones will now work on any network and CDMA phones have SIM cards - however - they are as you say locked and again this is to make sure the carrier gets their money back on the handset subsidy and an attempt to reduce churn. ALL four carriers in America now have phones that can work on all four networks because ALL four carriers have adopted LTE technology. Again CDMA phones now use SIM cards! WCDMA or Wide Band Code Division Multiple Access was 3G and 4G is partially using a mixture of the alphabet including TDD and FDD SCDMA, HSPA, SCFDMA and a HOST of dozens of other acronyms and other schemes to improve spectrum efficiency.
I have been out of the business for over a decade and all of this is from memory yet I still retain my Wireless Guru moniker among many of my friends.
There is a TON on the internet. Here is one link:
http://www.rfwireless-world.com/Terminology/difference-between-TD-SCDMA-WCDMA-CDMA2000.html
May I ask what exact LG phone you are currently using?? I will look up the specs for you. Ohh yea it is NOT hardware related in most cases as it IS all software that allows frequency access or not. Batteries, screens, accessories and the like are all the same.
The RF modem is the key. and I agree - get the phone that does what you want or need it to do!
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