oneilsoft.com - The FIRST Choice of Record Centers Worldwide

Recently I have been asked a lot of questions about RSMobile and how it communicates over the cellphone data networks. This is such a great feature, allowing drivers to upload/download data from the field, or allow you carry out record center operations in a remote warehouse, including live lookups. Most of the questions, however, focus on the cellphone company that people have chosen. After all, we all have our favorite service provider so why did O'Neil choose AT&T and is that your only choice?

So let's give some background:

In cellular services there are two competing network technologies: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). The GSM Association is an international organization founded in 1987, dedicated to providing, developing, and overseeing the worldwide wireless standard of GSM. Service providers in the US include AT&T (formerly Cingular) and T-Mobile. CDMA, a proprietary standard designed by Qualcomm in the United States, has been the dominant network standard for North America. The major service providers in the US include Sprint/Nextel, Verizon and Virgin Mobile.

Of course, there are sides that firmly believe either GSM or CDMA architecture is superior to the other so this wasn't the area where we had to choose our core provider.

With the need for data transfer from the device, rather than just using it to make calls, CDMA has been traditionally faster than GSM, though both technologies continue to rapidly leapfrog along this path. Both boast "3G" standards, or 3rd generation technologies. EVDO, also known as CDMA2000, is CDMA's answer to the need for speed while GSM's answer is EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) with new technologies that include HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access).

So with speeds being very similar, this wasn't a primary choice for O'Neil either but a big advantage of GSM are Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards. In the United States only GSM phones use SIM cards with the SIM itself being tied to the network, rather than the actual phone. Phones that are card-enabled can be used with any GSM carrier. The Motorola MC9094K & G devices require a SIM card and so this was the first area where we had to make a choice of networks.

Next, according CDG.org, CDMA networks support over 450 million subscribers, although this is limited to the Americas, Asia & Africa, while GSM.org tallies up their score at over 3.8 billion worldwide. With O'Neil Software customers operating in more than 70 countries, we needed the worldwide coverage. GSM was the clear winner in this area.

So, once a technology platform was chosen, we looked at which providers in the US would work with us to test RSMobile. T-Mobile told me that they were focused on the consumer market and did not have a program in place for testing business applications. AT&T were geared for eaxctly this kind of project and had already approved the MC9094 for use on their network. We worked directly with their testing group and they certified that RSMobile performed perfectly on their GSM network with the MC9094.

And that is how RSMobile became tested and approved for the AT&T GSM data network.

So is AT&T your only choice? The simple answer is no, as long as you use a GSM network with a SIM card. Although we have not tested RSMobile with any other service provider, we do have customers using it from Vodaphone (in the UK) to Telstra (in Australia). Please remember, our support teams will not be able to help you with some specific network setup on the device if you use another provider, but you should be able to work through issues with the cell phone companies support desk.