GSM phone's battery life advantage?

[Bert Hyman]

In general, GSM phones claim longer battery life than CDMA phones.

If that's true, where's that come from?

Do the phones just not check in to the network as often?

As an aside, is it really correct to refer to CDMA phones as such? GSM
phones use a form of TDMA, but nobody calls them that. And, don't the
high-speed data services for GSM phones use W-CDMA?

[matt weber]

Post by Bert Hyman
In general, GSM phones claim longer battery life than CDMA phones.
If that's true, where's that come from?
Do the phones just not check in to the network as often?
As an aside, is it really correct to refer to CDMA phones as such? GSM
phones use a form of TDMA, but nobody calls them that. And, don't the
high-speed data services for GSM phones use W-CDMA?

CDMA receivers need to be on at all times to operate the power
management loop, and keep track of the 'spreading' code. While at low
data rate, the transmit from a CDMA may be more or less time division
multiplexed, it is designed for continuous transmission, albeit at low
power. That does force the receiver to be on at all times however.