Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley -- interesting lack of appreciation for internet in Europe. Perhaps this explains why GPRS, WAP, W-CDMA are just not moving forward in Europe. It appears that traveling Europe is just not asking for it -- for whatever reason. And, let me say, I have absolutely no understanding of why this might be so. Perhaps there is some lack of critical mass due to having multiple languages.
Stephen Roach (from Venezia)
The ease of Internet connectivity has become one of my personal favorites in gauging the
potential for economic transformation in recent years. On that basis, Europe is going
nowhere. Time and again, I find that telephone systems at the very best of the European
hotels just aren’t up to speed when it comes to the simple task of the modem connection.
The engineers and technicians that are dispatched by hotel business centers are pleasant
and helpful -- and I now know many of them on a personal basis -- but they can’t turn stone
into gold. That’s true, literally everywhere across the continent --from France and Spain to
Germany and Switzerland and, of course, in Italy, where I am "e-marooned" at the moment.
Over the past six weeks, I have traveled extensively in Asia, Canada, the United States,
and now Europe. Let me assure you, Europe remains at the bottom of the connectivity heap. |
