Early adopters.

Post #14,554 by addison 10/22/01 10:34:49 AM Reply	Early adopters. The US was the first to start putting in power on a wide scale. Started with 110V... by the time the Europeans and others were doing the same, the technology had advanced to where 220 was more practical, but the US had too much 110... you know, lock in and switching value. :) Lemme see.. Aha. :) I thought they had a column on it: [link\|http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_292.html\|How come the U.S. uses 120 volt electricity, not 240 like the rest of the world?] Ah, the Straight Dope... Should be #2 on the search list, after google. :) Addison
Post #14,560 by SpiceWare 10/22/01 11:16:18 AM Reply	Like Cell Phones From what I understand, the cell phone networks in Europe have more features and are better integrated(such as while roaming) than in the state. Darrell Spice, Jr. [link\|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/\|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
Post #14,565 by CRConrad 10/22/01 11:27:51 AM Reply	As I understand it, that's more due to market fragmentation: The problem with cell phone integration in the US is that each operator decided on their own system, in stead of agreeing to use a single unified one. Each system, in and of itself, could have features just as good as those of the European GSM network[1], but it makes integration between them damn difficult. [1]: I'm not saying they do, but they could. (Not saying they don't, either.) Christian R. Conrad The Man Who Knows Fucking Everything
Post #14,698 by static 10/22/01 10:02:44 PM Reply	CRC has that about right. A number of standards setters and carriers got together to create the Global System for Mobiles - GSM. Europe and most of the world signed up for it. The US decided they could come up with their own. But GSM does have a lot of good features that few other systems have. I notice that US carriers are starting to implement GSM now. Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #14,705 by tonytib 10/22/01 10:52:47 PM Reply	Not quite right -- GSM enforced by EU, CDMA is more advanced Pretty sure GSM was mandated by EU, o/w Europe would have the same mix of standards that the US has. But, on the other hand, allowing for newer standards does allow for more rapid technological advancement. The US lack of standards allowed Sprint PCS to deploy the first CDMA network -- at the time they started, many people doubted it would work. But it works quite well, and in fact will become the dominant 3G technology -- although in two flavors, of course: W-CDMA for the Euros (best GSM upgrade path) and cdma2000 for IS-95 (best upgrade path for current CDMA) systems. And, if Sprint can deliver, we'll have 144K bps 2.5G CDMA nationwide by the end of 2002, while GSM even in Europe will be limited to the 36K or so if you're lucky GPRS. In about a year, I'll probably upgrade to a new Sprint phone capable of handling those rates, so I may be able to give hard data then. (Sprint is claiming megabit rates by 2004 or so, but I'd be pretty happy if they could just truly deliver 144K nationwide). BTW, I believe that CDMA is also being deployed in Korea and China and I think Japan (at least DoCoMo) has their own standards, too. That said, there is a lot to be said for standards -- or at least getting better interoperability. There's no technical reason why I cann't send a SMS message from a CDMA phone to a GSM phone -- except that the US cell companies don't seem to care. Finally, there's one big reason GSM has a bad name in California: currently the only GSM carrier in California is: Pacific Hell (now Cingular) My former bosses's quote: "My GSM phone works great....except in California." Tony
Post #14,724 by Meerkat 10/23/01 1:56:31 AM Reply	CDMA in .au, too Primarily touted as a replacement for the AMPS analogue network - the main selling point being a CDMA phone can work further away from a base station than a GSM one. Other side benefits being CDMA doesn't interfere near as much with radios, hearing aids, and the like. CDMA doesn't necessarily = fast though. I believe the current CDMA networks here offer 14.4K data rates. (No idea ATM which flavour of CDMA this is called). 'Til 3G comes along of course. .au has CDMA<->GSM SMS interoperability between most, but not all, carriers, On and on and on and on, and on and on and on goes John.

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