iDEN

iDEN (integrated digital enhanced network)

A mobile radio network technology that combines two-way radio, telephone, text messaging and data transmission into one network. (Cingular)

Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) is a mobile communications technology, developed by Motorola, which provides its users the benefits of a trunked radio and a cellular telephone. Sprint Nextel is the largest U.S. retailer of iDEN services. iDEN places more users in a given spectral space, compared to analog cellular systems, by using time division multiple access (TDMA). Up to six communication channels share a 25 kHz space; some competing technologies place only one channel in 12.5 kHz.

iDEN is available in other countries through several carriers including Nextel International. Nextel International allows direct connect (PTT operation) between users in several countries including the United States, Argentina,Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Canada.

Countries which have operating iDEN networks not currently connected with the US include Jordan, Israel, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Japan, El Salvador and China (in selected areas).

2G

Second generation of mobile wireless, which utilizes various digital protocols, including GSM, CDMA, TDMA, iDEN, and PDC. (Cingular)

2G (or 2-G) is short for second-generation wireless telephone technology.

The main differentiator to previous mobile telephone systems, retroactively dubbed 1G, is that the radio signals that 1G networks use are analog, while 2G networks are digital. Note that both systems use digital signaling to connect the radio towers (which listen to the handsets) to the rest of the telephone system.

Flavors of 2G

2G technologies can be divided into TDMA-based and CDMA-based standards depending on the type of multiplexing used. The main 2G standards are:

* GSM (TDMA-based), originally from Europe but used worldwide
* IDEN (TDMA-based), proprietary network used by Nextel in the United States and Telus Mobility in Canada
* IS-136 aka D-AMPS, (TDMA-based, commonly referred as simply TDMA in the US), used in the Americas
* IS-95 aka cdmaOne, (CDMA-based, commonly referred as simply CDMA in the US), used in the Americas and parts of Asia
* PDC (TDMA-based), used exclusively in Japan