(Time Division Multiple Access) A satellite and cellular phone air interface that interleaves multiple digital signals onto a single high-speed channel. For cellular systems, TDMA triples the capacity of the earlier analog method (FDMA). TDMA divides each channel into three subchannels providing service to three users instead of one. The GSM cellular system is based on TDMA, but GSM defines the entire network, not just the air interface. See cellular generations, FDMA, CDMA and CDPD.