Digital vs. Analogue Physical Wattage Output?

Question

I need to know for the sake of my job (assessment test) what is the difference in RF wattage output (physical output from a cellphone) between Digital and Analogue.

I have a short period of time to answer this via email so thanks for any help!

Apparently digital cellphones and analogue cellphones output a different amount of wattage. I've searched for cellphone output, wattage output, digital vs analogue, etc.

Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

The old analog system, AMPS, ran in the 825 MHz to 894Mhz range (832 channels). There were three classes of power: class 1 at 4W max, class 2 at 1.6W max, and class 3 at 0.6W max.

The GSM system runs in the old AMPS band, and also at higher frequencies, 1800MHz in Europe, 1900MHz in North America. GSM defines 16 power levels, from level 0 at 20W to level 15 at 20mW. They also define five power classes.. only a class 1 device can go to 20W, and that's not a handheld. Most handhelds are either class 3 (5W maximum) or class 4 (2W maximum).

I'm fairly sure similar rules apply to CDMA phones, though I do not have any documentation on this.

For IDEN at 800MHz (Nextel/Sprint only), they can go to 5W, so I assume they also follow the GSM class 3 rules. And of course, lower power phones are highly likely, in the <2W range.