Why cell phone service here sucks

There are many reasons for this disparity.  Some argue that Europe is much smaller than the U.S. so it’s easier to wire the place for cellular service.  But the real reason is that there is one cell phone standard in Europe and most of the world.  GSM phones rule.  Some Far Eastern countries use other standards, but within each of those countries there is one preferred system.

In the United States, there are many cellular standards.  T-Mobile and Cingular are our GSM providers.  North American GSM phones operate on different frequencies than overseas GSM phones.  That’s why you’ll see the designation “quad band” or “world phone” on some handsets.  They have both U.S. and European circuit boards inside and work everywhere GSM works. 

Verizon, Sprint, Nextel and others use different cell phone standards (CDMA, TDMA, etc.)  Their phones don’t work overseas, although Nextel’s SIM cards work in GSM “world” phones allowing you to keep using your phone number overseas.

I believe that our system of allowing each cellular company to do what they please is holding us back when it comes to blanketing our country with usable signals, despite what the ads claim.  In other ways we have an edge.  Verizon and Sprint provide very fast data networks here in the U.S., much faster than their GSM data network counterparts. 

But, here in the U.S. we’re far behind in total cell phone data use.  Catching up will take awhile.  Most users here stay with their provider for years and years, accepting what they’re offered without taking the time to shop around for improved services -– not just price.  And consumers are not going to purchase voice services from one place, data services and overseas roaming from others.

There needs to be one standard here too.  If all cellular companies, worldwide, worked on improving one set of standards we’d see a lot better service -– with more features -– at better prices.  This is one area where narrowing the competition would be a good thing for the consumer.

But, I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen anytime soon.  I don’t expect our government to step in to help.  On the other hand, the FCC did choose a broadcast standard for digital radio in the United States. Though as you might expect, it’s not the same standard that the rest of the world is happy using. 

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