Digital cellular phone technology that does not sub-divide the available bandwidth for several separate calls. Instead, it assigns the entire bandwidth to one call and encodes each call, limiting decoding to the intended receiver. Since encoding removes the background noise and wide bandwidth transmits more data in the same period, clear, fast, and interference -free communication occurs. Version 1X provides a 1.25 megahertz bandwidth, and version 3X provides a 5 MHz bandwidth. Invented during World War 2 to evade jamming by Germany, it was developed for cellular use by the US firm Qualcomm, which owns most of its patents and all licensing rights. Refer also to TDMA. This contrast to Global System For Mobile Communication or GSM, which assigns a separate frequency to each call.
Black’s Law Online Dictionary
