Europeans are more techno-conservative than the US and the chaos of non-standardisation would scare too many away. When GSM was made the standard, adoption by end users was breakneck and now almost anybody who wants a mobile 'phone has one and has little reason to change.

The European telcos problem was believing this rapid adoption could be repeated again and again. Europeans don't adopt yet another technology without likely support and use. SMS was adopted because it was a usable, connectionless alternative to voice but WAP was unworkable on a 'phone screen and keypad. Believing the success of GSM could be repeated, the telcos blindly spent fortunes on 3G licenses with an impending, general recession and without a clear roadmap of what customers would get out of it.

Despite this, I prefer the European model anyway. I would regard a planned changeover to 3G to be a small price to pay for an early, working 2G.