Rajala, it's such fun reading your posts because you provide so much to disagree with.
The reason the cellphone networks are so much better in Europe than USA is because GSM was made the 'national standard' in Europe. So roaming was easy, efficiency was higher due to the same technology being used everywhere, Europe has 'calling party pays' instead of the absurd situation they still have in the USA where somebody makes a call to you and YOU have to pay for their decision and needs!
For those reasons, Americans were much slower to adopt the technology. It cost them heaps to have a phone, leave it turned on or give their number to everyone.
The spectrum cost you thought was the problem is so low it is almost irrelevant in the USA. Even at the very high $4.3bn for 110m pops which Nextwave was going to pay, that only worked out to $40 capital per pop. That is minor compared with the total capital, including handsets, needed to provide service. The new spectrum price, court ordered after the bankruptcy proceedings, was about a fifth or less than that. So your 'high spectrum cost' reason is wrong.
GSM also went ahead in leaps and bounds, with functionality, cost, size, coverage etc all making cellphone calls attractive to Europeans. It is up against the wall now. CDMA is the only way out and 3G will be the technology.
There was less competition in the USA until recently so that was also a factor, but that has rapidly changed.
It's a new ball-game now and the cellphone service providers have been putting blood in their mouths, so cdmaOne is roaring across the USA and world. 3G CDMA is preparing to cover Europe. Globalstar is nearly ready to provide service in Europe. GSM is toast. Game over.
Maurice |
