GSM vs. LTE – should you go for the older or newer communications technology?

It is very evident today that the advent and development of technology in thewireless cellular field – and they have changed the methods we use to send and receive data. They have also increased significantly, to the extent that everyone seems to own a cellular phone due to decreasing costs; and nothing showcases this other than the development of LTE and GSM networks.

Aside from mobile phones, there are plenty of additional mobile radio applications, and their use extends to military and security applications, space exploration, broadcasting, and so on. Regardless of the specific use, the underlying principles remain the same.

With that said, it is easy to see that GSM is the most popular wireless technology, and its use is not expected to end any time soon. Even though these networks are constantly evolving, they have generally reached a point of design limitations that are inherent to their design and operation, fueled by the increasing number of people worldwide who own a mobile phone. This has led to the need for improvements from GSM, and the result is LTE, which is touted as the next generation for cellular telecommunication.

What are the differences between GSM and LTE?

 
GSM (AT&T)
LTE (Verizon)
What it stands for
Global System for Mobile communications
Long Term Evolution
Channel bandwidth supported
200 kHz
20MHz, 15MHz, 10MHz, 5MHz, 3MHz, 1.4MHz
Frequency bands (in MHz)
PCS1900, DCS1800, GSM900, GSM850
Band 1-25 (FDD), Band 33-43 (TDD)
Method of modulation
GMSK
64QAM, 16QAM, QPSK
Types of channels
Physical, Logical
Transport, Physical, Logical
Applications
Mainly voice calls
Mainly data calls

GSM vs. LTE – How they compare

General definitions

LTE is the default standard that handles high-speed wireless technology (all broadband) in a mobile device, and is a project name for the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project), as we will discuss later on in this article.

On the other hand, GSM is defined as the second-to-third generation of cellular mobile phone systems, and it is the most popular standard that originated in the 1990s and lasted to the late 2000s.It was meant as a cellular standard that could unite all the 12 nations in the European Common Market.

LTE is seen as the improvement of GSM, so we will pick it as the preferable option because of the improvements it has.

Transmission and frequency bands

The technology behindGSM is a combination of two technologies – TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) and FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access). Every carrier frequency in the GSM bands are divided into 8 time slots, and the system sets them up to form a GSM connection. Every user on the network will then receive a pre-defined channel and the time slot when they can receive or send the signal.

The LTE network uses a system known as OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) that acts as a signal bearer, and SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access) as the associated access scheme.

The system frequencies in use in the GSM network are two bands, one at 1800MHz and another at 900MHz – these are usually referred to as DCS-1800 and GSM-900 systems. In order to divide the 25MHz bandwidth, FDMA is applied here to split the bandwidth the 124 carrier frequencies, which will each have a channel width of 200 kHz, and the TDMA method is used to divide each carrier frequency into eight time slots.

The LTE uses a different standard of frequency names, with different countries specifying the frequency bands they use, as well as the limits and number. As a general rule, frequency bands between numbers 1 to 25 are for FDD use, while bands 33 to 41 are for TDD.

What really stands out about the GSM is the consistency in the transmission and frequency standards, regardless of where you are using it from.

GSM vs. LTE – A comparison review

GSM – Overview

GSM, which is an acronym for Global System for Mobiles, is an older standard of radio systems that cell phones used from their inception to the mid-2000s, and is a shorthand for 2G and 3G. The ‘G’ acronym is basically a ‘generation’ of wireless technology, and the capability of the G improves with later forms – for instance, 3G is better than 2G due to its support for more users and data transfer.

The network mode traces its beginnings to 1982, when CEPT (European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications) formed a committee known as GSM (Groupe Special Mobile), which later changed its name to Global System for Mobile Communications. The aim for this committee was to outline a mobile system that could be useful across the EU in the 1990s, and the project eventually was given to the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) in 1989. It eventually spread over the continent, gaining a home market of 300 million users, but quickly spread over the world due to its standard as a complete mobile communication network throughout the changes in cellular generations.

This split between GSM and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) eventually ended from 2010 onwards, thanks to the introduction of LTE, although the differences remained because the phones being produced still needed access to older 3G and 2G networks, and the transition to 4G has been slow – although it has succeeded, and carriers are now installing 5G capabilities in devices.

Pros

  • Allows you to use a variety of phones
  • Extensive coverage
  • Does not include roaming charges when you make international calls

Cons

  • Suffers from bandwidth lags
  • Can cause electronic interference in certain settings (such as airplanes, speakers, and so on)

LTE – Overview

LTE, on the other hand, is the default standard of mobile communications to handle high-speed wireless broadband. It is actually a name for a project that was spearheaded by 3GPP (Third-Generation Partnership Project), which was the organization that handled the definition of UMTS and GSM standards.

The idea behind LTE was to find a system that ensured long-term evolution (hence the LTE acronym) of the 3GPP UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone System), also a 3GPP task. In order to surpass the limitations in the design of the UMTS standard, 3GPP chose to redesign the core and radio networks entirely, with the result being the LTE standard. The standard eventually became an integral part of the official Release 8 from the 3GPP.

Pros

  • Can use VoLGA to support SMS text messaging and voice through existing networks
  • Supports greater data capacity due to focusing more on VoIP (voice over internet protocol)
  • Increases your connection rates and speeds to the internet because it allows more users to access the same frequency
  • Can facilitate current applications to perform at better speeds
  • Reduces the traffic in sending data
  • Offers faster data transfer rates compared to 3G networks

Cons

  • Startup costs for service providers is high because it still needs new equipment

Verdict: So what is better? The GSM or LTE?

In conclusion, LTE and GSM are both basic technologies that are in use in mobile phones worldwide, with the GSM representing an older form of the technology while LTE represents the latest form. For this reason, we will pick the LTE as the better choice, because it improves on the problems that the GSM network standard has. Other than that, it is increasingly being adopted as well on a global scale, therefore easing your communication standards overall because of its ability to offer you great broadband access independent of your location.

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