Hmm, seems like WCDMA is stagnating, not GPRS nor EDGE.
(One the other hand, few european regions really need the new bands, with shared
masts and antennas)
In terms of the US-EU markets, I would not mention analog, would have been total disaster
to make GSM compatible and consumer undecectable from 30 kHz NMT-AMPS, especially when
trying to feed analog handsets SMS messages,etc.
But seems like the time for shutting down AMPS-TDMA is around the corner (but not as painlessly,
almost unnoticed, as the already shut down NMT networks)
Btw, WCDMAs network are pretty cheap, especially when added to GPRS networks, and really
especially if the handsets are not given away for "free" as a network-operator cost.
nokia.com
Even cheaper with share masts and antennas, and why not some shared channel resources, after
the EU cavallery has visited some part of EU, once again, on book keeping on roaming costs.
Which takes the ball back to the operators, to roam and cooperate, agree or stay behind.
Without even getting into the 1X upgrade mess
Ilmarinen
Btw, I wonder why Tero didn't split the question on numbers of operators into at least two
cases
- operators competing in the same sqrmeter of ether
- operators who are not everywhere, but pretty well covered anyway
- operators who cooperate very closely in terms of roaming and billing
(might be a good way of avoiding taxes, buy your SIM card from, pay your bills to Cayman Islands)
PS, that one month of vacation adds demands on roaming, so it is not just a question of
business men |
