Sprint touts first Bluetooth CDMA phone

Sprint has become the first U.S. CDMA (code division multiple access) cell phone carrier to offer Sony Ericsson's T608 mobile phone with integrated Bluetooth capability, Sprint said Tuesday.

The T608 phone was announced last month, and uses wireless Bluetooth technology to communicate with other Bluetooth-equipped devices. Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology that is used in products such as keyboards, printers, and other peripheral devices. Sprint expects Bluetooth headsets to become one of the more popular uses of the technology, it said in a press release.

Users of cell phones based on GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) networks have had Bluetooth available for about a year through different manufacturers, but the T608 is the first CDMA phone with Bluetooth. It will be available in the second quarter, said Sprint, which is based in Overland Park, Kansas.

Most carriers worldwide use the GSM standard, but a few U.S. carriers, such as Sprint and Verizon Wireless use CDMA technology as the backbone of their wireless networks. GSM offers international roaming capability, and holds far more subscribers, but CDMA technology is said to offer better communications security.

A U.S. Congressman recently advocated that CDMA technology should be the wireless network used in the rebuilding of Iraq, which prompted an outcry from GSM advocates who charged the lawmaker was more concerned with securing a lucrative contract for CDMA patent holder Qualcomm, based in his home city of San Diego, than the technology. The majority of countries in the Middle East use GSM technology, which would make roaming between Iraq and other countries difficult, or impossible.