Technology Difference: Digital or Analog

In our cellular world, there are two primary technologies available to wireless users: analog and digital, and your preference for one or the other depends on where you'll want to do the majority of your calling. Next consider whether you want analog or digital service. Digital service ? clearer and more secure than analog ? is necessary for features like wireless Internet and e-mail. But coverage can be spotty. The older analog network, which transmits sounds like radio waves, has the most extensive coverage, especially in rural areas. Tip: If you want digital service, make sure your cellular company has a ''roaming'' agreement that lets your phone work on an analog system when you are outside digital range. But beware ? roaming can be expensive, and it requires a ''dual mode'' phone. Although dropping out of popularity, the analog standard, otherwise referred to as AMPS or NAMPS, offers coverage for over 80% of the U.S., including many rural areas not covered by digital technology. Analog offers the advantage of low pricing and a large calling area. Low sound quality and reduced privacy or security are disadvantages to this technology.

The digital standard, which encompasses the CDMA, TDMA and GSM platforms, allows for more callers to concurrently occupy space on each of a service provider's cells, making it the superior choice for highly populated or metropolitan areas. Each platform has its merits, ranging from the reduced background noise and earlier WAP adoption of CDMA phones, to the clearer sound and security protection of TDMA phones, to the near global roaming ability that accompanies GSM phones. PCS, the new kid on the block, is a marketing term for a CDMA digital network. Disadvantages to digital systems are their lack of unified technology and a small, metropolitan-focused calling area.

If you go to the country occasionally, you won't have coverage at all if your phone is digital only. Remote locations are not covered by the digital network, but using a digital & analog phone makes it possible to automatically switch to analog when digital service is not available for a better overall coverage.